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THE  CLOISTER  LIFE  OF  THE 
~"       EMPEROR  CHARLES 
THE  FIFTH. 


BY  , 

WILLIAM    STIRLINGr/^^^*^^''^ 

AHTHOE    OF    'annals    OF    THE    ARTISTS     OF     SPAIN.' 


FROM    THE   SECOND    LONDON    EDITION. 


BOSTON: 
CROSBY,  NICHOLS   &   COMPANY. 

NEW  YORK:    CHARLES  S.  FRANCIS   &   CO. 
1853. 


TO 


RICHARD    FORD, 


AS    A    MARK    OF    ADMIRATION    FOR    HIS    WRITINGS, 


AND    AS    A    MEMORIAL    OF    FRIENDSHIP, 


THIS    WORK     I  S 


INSCRIBED. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  PREFACE. 


Authorities  cited  in  this  work :  page 

Fr.  J.  de  Siguen^a v 

Fr.  P.  de  Sandoval vi 

J.  A.  de  Vera,  Fr.  M.  de  Angulo,  and  Marquis  of  Valparaiso       vii 

Father  P.  Ribadeneira viii 

M.  Gachard  and  T.  Gonzalez ix 

Doubts  as  to  the  self-performed  obsequies  of  Charles  V.  examined'    xii 

Notice  of  the  portrait  of  Charles  V.  on  the  title-page xvii 

Postscript  for  a  second  edition xviii 


PREFACE. 


The  first,  and  perhaps  the  best,  printed  account  of  the 
cloister  life  of  Charles  the  Fifth,  is  to  be  found  in  Joseph 
de  Siguenga's  History  of  the  Order  of  St.  Jerome.  The 
author  was  born  about  1545,  of  noble  parents,  in  the  Ara- 
gonese  city  from  whence,  according  to  the  Jeromite  custom, 
he  afterwards  took  his  name.  He  became  a  monk  about 
the  age  of  twenty-one,  at  El  Parral,  near  Segovia,  and  hav- 
ing studied  at  the  royal  college  of  the  Escorial,  he  obtained 
great  fame  as  a  preacher  in  and  around  Segovia,  and  was 
made  prior  of  his  convent.  Removing  to  the  Escorial,  he 
devoted  himself  to  literary  labor  in  the  library  which  was 
then  being  collected  and  arranged  by  the  learned  Arias 
Montano.  His  reputation  for  knowledge  soon  stood  so 
high,  that  Philip  the  Second  used  to  say  of  him,  that  he 
was  the  greatest  wonder  of  the  new  convent,  which  was 
called  the  eighth  wonder  of  the  world.  The  first  of  his 
literary  works,  a  series  of  discourses  on  Ecclesiastes,  was 
denounced  as  heretical  before  the  bar  of  the  Inquisition  at 
Toledo  ;  but  he  defended  it  so  well,  that  he  received  honor- 
able acquittal,  and  returned  to  the  Escorial  with  an  unblem- 
ished character  for  orthodoxy,  to  write  the  history  of  St. 
Jerome  and  his  Order.  The  first  volume,  containing  the  life 
of  the  saint,  was  published  in  1595,  in  quarto,  at  Madrid  ; 
the  second  and  third,  in  folio,  in  1600  and  1605.  The  au- 
thor died  in  1606,  of  apoplexy,  at  the  Escorial,  having  been 
twice  elected  prior  of  the  house. 

One  of  the  most  able  and  learned  of  ecclesiastical  histori- 


VI  PREFACE. 

ans,  Siguenqa,  for  the  elegance  and  simple  eloquence  of  his 
style,  has  been  ranked  among  the  classical  writers  of  Castille. 
Like  all  monkish  chroniclers,  he  has  been  compelled  to  bind 
up  a  vast  quantity  of  the  tares  of  religious  fiction  with  the 
wheat  of  authentic  history  ;  but  he  writes  with  an  air  of  sin- 
cerity and  good  faith,  and  when  he  is  not  dealing  with  mira- 
cles and  visions,  he  seems  to  be  earnest  in  his  endeavor  to 
discover  and  record  the  truth.  In  relating  the  life  of  the 
emperor  at  Yuste,  he  had  the  advantage  of  conversing  with 
many  eyewitnesses  of  the  facts  ;  Fray  Antonio  de  Villacas- 
tin,  and  several  other  monks  of  Yuste,  were  his  brethren  at 
the  Escorial  ;  the  emperor's  confessor,  Regla,  and  his  favor- 
ite preacher,  Villalva,  filled  the  same  posts  in  the  household 
of  Philip  the  Second,  and  were  therefore  often  at  the  royal 
convent  ;  the  prior  may  also  have  seen  there  Quixada,  the 
chamberlain,  and  Gaztelu,  the  secretary,  of  Charles  ;  and  at 
Toledo  or  Madrid  he  may  have  had  opportunities  of  knowing 
Torriano,  the  emperor's  mechanician. 

Fray  Prudencio  de  Sandoval,  bishop  of  Pamplona,  printed 
his  well-known  History  of  Charles  the  Fifth  at  Valladolid, 
in  folio,  the  first  part  in  1604,  and  the  second  part  in  1606. 
In  the  latter,  a  supplementary  book  is  devoted  to  the  em- 
peror's retirement  at  Yuste.  It  was  drawn  up,  as  we  are  told 
by  the  author,  from  a  manuscript  relation  in  his  possession, 
written  by  Fray  Martin  de  Angulo,  prior  of  Yuste,  at  the 
desire  of  the  infanta  Juana,  daughter  of  the  emperor  and  re- 
gent of  Spain  at  the  time  of  his  death.  As  Angulo  came  to 
Yuste,  on  being  elected  prior,  only  in  the  summer  of  1558, 
his  personal  knowledge  of  the  emperor's  sayings  and  doings 
was  limited  to  the  last  few  months  of  his  life.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  his  relation  was  known  to  Siguenja,  whose 
position  as  prior  of  the  Escorial  must  have  given  him  ac- 
cess to  all  the  royal  archives. 

Juan  Antonio  de  Vera  y  Figueroa,  count  of  La  Roca, 
printed  his  Epitome  of  the  Life  of  Charles  the  Fifths  in 
quarto,  at  Madrid,  in   1613.     It  contains   Httle   that  Sandoval 


PREFACE.  VU 

and  others  had  not  already  published  ;  but  there  are  a  few 
anecdotes  of  the  emperor's  retirement  which  the  author  may 
have  picked  up  from  tradition.  Being  more  than  seventy 
years  of  age  at  his  death,  in  1658,  he  may  have  conversed 
with  persons  who  had  known  his  hero.  He  also  may  have 
seen  the  narrative  of  the  prior  Angulo. 

Of  that  narrative  a  copy  exists,  or  did  lately  exist,  in  the 
National  Library  at  Madrid.  It  was  seen  there  some  years 
ago  by  M.  Gachard,  of  Bruxelles.*  My  friend  Don  Pascual 
de  Gayangos  kindly  undertook  to  search  for  it,  but  he  was 
not  successful  in  discovering  the  original  document,  or 
even  an  early  copy.  He  found,  however,  a  manuscript  work 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  which  professed  to  embody  the 
account  by  Angulo.  This  work,  entitled  El  perfecto  Deseii' 
gano,  was  written  in  1638,  and  dedicated  to  the  count  duke 
of  Olivares  ;  and  its  author,  in  whose  autograph  it  is  written, 
was  the  Alarquess  del  Valparaiso,  a  knight  of  Santiago  and 
member  of  the  council  of  war.  It  is  one  of  the  countless 
treatises  of  that  age,  on  the  virtues  of  princes,  of  which  Charles 
the  Fifth,  in  Spain  at  least,  was  always  held  up  as  a  model. 
The  second  part,  of  which  a  copy  is  now  before  me,  is  en- 
titled, "  Life  of  the  Emperor  in  the  Convent  of  Yuste,  taken 
from  that  which  was  written  by  the  Prior  Fray  Martin  de 
AnguJo,  by  command  of  the  Princess  Dona  Juana,  and  from 
other  Books  and  Papers  of  equal  Quality  and  Credit.''''  With 
exception  of  a  few  sentences,  and  a  few  trifling  alterations, 
the  greater  part  of  this  narrative  is  word  for  word  that  of 
Sandoval.  I  likewise  recognize  a  few  excerpts  from  Vera. 
Unless,  therefore,  we  suppose  that  Sandoval  and  Vera,  an- 
ticipating the  process  adopted  by  Valparaiso,  transferred  the 
document  of  Angulo  to  their  own  pages,  we  must  hold  it  very 
doubtful  whether  the  marquis  had  more  than  a  second-hand 
knowledge  of  the  narrative  of  the  prior. 


*  Bulletins  de  rAcadimie  Royale  des  Sciences  et  des  Belles  Lettres,  Tom. 
XII.  Premiere  Partic,  1845. 

a* 


Vm  PREFACE. 

The  Jesuit  Pedro  Ribadeneira,  in  his  Life  of  Father  Fran- 
cisco Borja,  printed  in  quarto,  at  Madrid,  in  1592,  gave  a 
long  and  circumstantial  account  of  the  interviews  which  took 
place  in  Estremadura  between  that  remarkable  man  and 
Charles  the  Fifth.  Born  in  1527,  and  in  very  early  life  a 
favorite  disciple  of  Loyola,  Ribadeneira  had  ample  opportu- 
nities of  gathering  the  materials  of  his  biography  from  the 
lips  of  Borja  himself.  He  is  not  always  accurate  in  his  dates 
and  names  of  places,  but  I  do  not  think  that  his  mistakes  of 
this  kind  are  sufficiently  important  to  discredit  in  any  great 
degree  the  facts  which  he  relates. 

These  are  the  principal  writers  who  have  treated  of  the 
latter  days  of  Charles  the  Fifth,  and  who  might  have  con- 
versed with  his  contemporaries.  From  their  works,  Strada, 
De  Thou,  Leti,  and  later  authors,  writing  on  the  same  sub- 
ject, have  drawn  their  materials,  which,  in  passing  from  pen 
to  pen,  have  undergone  considerable  changes  of  form. 

Our  own  Robertson  has  told  the  story  of  the  emperor's 
life  atYuste  with  all  the  dignity  and  grace  which  belongs  to 
his  style,  and  much  of  that  inaccuracy  which  is  inevitable 
when  a  subject  has  been  but  superficially  examined.  Citing 
the  respectable  names  of  Sandoval,  Vera,  and  De  Thou,  he 
seems  to  have  chiefly  relied  upon  Leti,  one  of  the  most  live- 
ly and  least  trustworthy  of  the  historians  of  his  time.  He 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  aware  of  the  existence  of  Si- 
guen^a,  —  the  author,  as  we  have  seen,  of  the  only  printed 
account  of  the  imperial  retirement  which  can  pretend  to 
the  authority  of  contemporary  narrative. 

A  visit  which  1  paid  to  Yuste  in  the  summer  of  1849  led 
me  to  look  into  the  earliest  records  of  the  event  to  which  the 
ruined  convent  owes  its  historical  interest.  Finding  the  sub- 
ject but  slightly  noticed,  yet  considerably  misrepresented,  by 
English  writers,  I  collected  the  results  of  my  reading  into 
two  papers,  contributed  to  Fraser''s  Magazine*  in  1851. 

"  Nos.  for  April  and  May,  1851. 


PREFACE.  IX 

An  article  by  M.  Gachard,  in  the  Bulletins  of  the  Royal 
Academy  of  Bruxelles,*  afterwards  informed  me  that  the 
archives  of  the  Foreign  Office  of  France  contained  a  MS. 
account  of  the  retirement  of  Charles  the  Fifth,  illustrated 
with  original  letters,  and  compiled  by  Don  Tomas  Gonzalez. 
Of  the  existence  of  this  precious  document  I  had  already 
been  made  aware  by  Mr.  Ford's  Handbook  for  Spain  ;  but 
my  inquiries  after  it,  both  in  Madrid  and  in  Paris,  had  proved 
fruitless.  During  the  past  winter  I  have  had  ample  opportu- 
nities of  examining  it,  opportunities  for  which  I  must  express 
my  gratitude  to  the  President  of  France,  who  favored  me 
with  the  necessary  order,  and  to  Lord  Normanby,  late  British 
ambassador  in  Paris,  and  M.  Drouyn  de  Lhuys,  who  kindly 
interested  themselves  in  getting  the  order  obeyed  by  the  un- 
willing officials  of  the  archives.  As  the  Gonzalez  MS.  has 
formed  the  groundwork  of  the  following  chapters,  it  may  not 
be  out  of  place  here  to  give  some  account  of  that  work  and 
of  its  compiler. 

At  the  restoration  of  Ferdinand  the  Seventh  to  the  throne 
of  Spain,  the  royal  archives  of  that  kingdom,  preserved  in 
the  castle  of  Simancas,  near  Valladolid,  were  intrusted  to 
the  care  of  Don  Tomas  Gonzalez,  canon  of  Plasencia.  They 
were  in  a  state  of  great  confusion,  owing  to  the  depredations 
of  the  French  invader,  subsequent  neglect,  and  the  partial 
return  of  the  papers  which  followed  the  peace.  Gonzalez 
succeeded  in  restoring  order,  and  he  also  found  time  to  use 
his  opportunities  for  the  benefit  of  historical  literature.  To 
the  Memoirs  of  the  Royal  Academy  of  History  he  contrib- 
uted a  long  and  elaborate  paper  on  the  relations  between 
Philip  the  Second  and  our  queen  Elizabeth  ;  and  he  had 
prepared  this  account  of  the  retirement  of  Charles  the  Fifth, 
and  had  had  it  fairly  copied  for  the  press,  when  death  brought 
his  labors  to  a  premature  close.     His  books  and  papers  fell 

*  Bulletins  de  VAcad.  Roy.  des  Sciences  et  des  Belles  Lettres,  Tom.  XII. 
lere  Partie,  1845. 


X  PREFACE. 

into  the  hands  of  his  brother  Manuel,  for  whom  he  had  ob- 
tained the  reversion  of  his  post  at  Simancas.  At  the  revolu- 
tion of  La  Granja,  in  1836,  Manuel,  being  displaced,  was 
reduced  to  poverty.  The  memoir  left  by  Tomas  appearing 
salable,  he  offered  it  to  the  governments  of  France,  Russia, 
Belgium,  and  England,  at  the  price  of  10,000  francs,  or 
about  ^400,  reserving  the  right  of  publishing  it  for  his  own 
behoof,  or  of  15,000  francs  without  such  reservation.  No 
purchaser  occurring,  he  was  forced  to  lower  his  demands,  and 
at  last  he  disposed  of  it,  in  1844,  for  the  sum  of  4,000  francs, 
to  the  archives  of  the  French  Foreign  Office,  of  which 
M.  Mignet  was  then  director.*  Of  what  possible  use  this 
curious  memoir  could  be  in  the  conduct  of  modern  foreign 
affairs,  it  is  difficult  even  to  guess  ;  but  it  is  due  to  M.  Mignet 
to  say,  that,  both  during  his  tenure  of  office  and  since,  he  has 
taken  every  precaution  in  his  power  to  keep  his  prize  sacred 
to  the  mysterious  purpose  for  which  he  had  originally  des- 
tined it. 

By  the  terms  of  his  bargain  M.  Mignet  acquired  both  the 
original  MS.  of  Gonzalez,  and  the  fair  copy  enriched  with 
notes  in  his  own  hand.  The  copy  contains  387  folio  leaves, 
written  on  both  sides,  the  memoir  filling  266  leaves,  and  the 
appendix  121.  There  is  also  a  plan  of  the  palace,  and  part 
of  the  monastery  of  Yuste. 

The  memoir  is  entitled,  "  The  Retirement,  Residence, 
and  Death  of  the  Emperor  Charles  the  Fifth  in  the  Monas- 
tery of  Yuste ;  an  Historical  Narrative  founded  on  Docu- 
ments.'''' t  It  commences  with  many  political  events  pre- 
vious to,  and  not  much  connected  with,  the  emperor's  retire- 
ment ;  such  as  the  negotiations  for  the  marriage  of  Philip 
the  Second  with  the  infanta  Mary  of  Portugal,  and  after- 

*  I  am  enabled  to  state  the  exact  sum  through  the  kindness  of  M. 
Van  de  Wever,  Belgian  minister  to  the  court  of  England,  who  obtained 
the  information  from  M.  Gachard. 

t  "  Retiro,  Estancia,  y  Muerte  del  Emperador  Carlos  Quinlo  en  el  Mmus- 
terio  de  Yuste ;  Relacion  kistorica  documentada." 


PREFACE.  XI 

wards  with  queen  Mary  of  England  ;  the  regency  established 
in  Spain  during  his  absence  ;  the  deaths  of  queen  Juana, 
mother  of  the  emperor,  and  of  popes  Julius  the  Third  and 
Marcellus  the  Second  ;  the  truce  of  Vaucelles  ;  and  the  dip- 
lomatic relations  of  pope  Paul  the  Fourth  with  the  courts  of 
France  and  Spain.  But  the  bulk  of  the  memoir  consists  al- 
most wholly  of  original  letters,  selected  from  the  correspond- 
ence carried  on  between  the  courts  at  Valladolid  and  Brux- 
elles,  and  the  retired  emperor  and  his  household,  in  the  years 
1556,  1557,  and  1558.  The  principal  writers  are  Philip  the 
Second,  the  infanta  Juana,  princess  of  Brazil  and  regent  of 
Spain,  Juan  Vazquez  de  Molina,  secretary  of  state,  Fran- 
cisco de  Eraso,  secretary  to  the  king,  and  Don  Garcia  de 
Toledo,  tutor  to  Don  Carlos ;  the  emperor,  Luis  Quixada, 
chamberlain  to  the  emperor,  Martin  de  Gaztelu,  his  secre- 
tary, William  Van  Male,  his  gentleman  of  the  chamber,  and 
Mathys  and  Cornelio,  his  physicians.  The  thread  of  the 
narrative  is  supplied  by  Gonzalez,  who  has  done  his  part 
with  great  judgment,  permitting  the  story  to  be  told  as  far  as 
possible  by  the  original  actors  in  their  own  words. 

The  appendix  is  composed  of  the  ten  following  docu- 
ments referred  to  in  the  memoir,  and  of  various  degrees  of 
value  and  interest. 

1.  Instructions  given  ly  the  Emperor  to  his  Son  at  Augs- 
burg, on  the  9th  of  January,  1548. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6.  Letter  from  the  Cardinal  Archbishop  (Siliceo)  of  To- 

ledo  to  the   Princess- Regent  of  Spain,  28th  June, 
1556. 

7.  Extract  from  the  Inventory  of  the  Furniture  and  Jew- 

els belonging  to  the  Emperor  at  his  Death. 

8.  Protest  of  Philip   the  Second  against  the  Pope,  6th 

May,  1557. 


Speeches  pronounced   by   the   Emperor   at   Bruxelles 
during  the  Ceremonies  of  his  Abdication. 


XU  PREFACE. 

9.  Justification  of  the  King  of  Spain  against  the  Pope, 

the  King  of  France,  and  the  Duke  of  Ferrara. 
10.  Will  of  the  Emperor,  with  its  Codicil. 
Of  these  papers,  Nos.  2,  3,  4,  5,  10,  and  perhaps  some  of 
the  others,  have  already  been  printed  :  of  No.  7  I  have  given 
an  abstract  in  my  appendix. 

Notwithstanding  the  minute  information  which  Gonzalez 
has  brought  to  light  respecting  the  daily  life  of  the  emperor 
at  Yuste,  soni,e  doubt  still  rests  on  the  question  whether 
Charles  did  or  did  not  perform  his  own  obsequies.  Gonzalez 
treats  the  story  as  an  idle  tale :  he  laments  the  credulity  dis- 
played even  in  the  sober  statements  of  Siguen9a ;  and  he 
pours  out  much  patriotic  scorn  on  the  highly-wrought  picture 
of  Robertson.  The  opinions  of  the  canon,  on  all  other  mat- 
ters carefully  weighed  and  considered,  are  well  worthy  of 
respect,  and  require  some  examination. 

Of  Robertson's  account  of  the  matter,  it  is  impossible  to 
offer  any  defence.  Masterly  as  a  sketch,  it  has  unhappily 
been  copied  from  the  canvas  of  the  unscrupulous  Leti.*  In 
every  thing  but  style  it  is  indeed  very  absurd.  "  The  em- 
peror was  bent,"  said  the  historian,  "  on  performing  some  act 
of  piety  that  would  display  his  zeal,  and  merit  the  favor  of 
Heaven.  The  act  on  which  he  fixed  was  as  wild  and  un- 
common as  any  that  superstition  ever  suggested  to  a  weak 
and  disordered  fancy.  He  resolved  to  celebrate  his  own 
obsequies  before  his  death.  He  ordered  his  tomb  to  be 
erected  in  the  chapel  of  the  monastery.  His  domestics 
marched  thither  in  funeral  procession,  with  black  tapers  in 
their  hands.  He  himself  followed  in  his  shroud.  He  was 
laid  in  his  coffin,  with  much  solemnity.  The  service  for  the 
dead  was  chanted,  and  Charles  joined  in  the  prayers  which 
were  offered  up  for  the  rest  of  his  soul,  mingling  his  tears 
with  those  which  his  attendants  shed,  as  if  they  had  been 


*  Vita  delP  Invitissimo  Imp.  Carlo  V.  da  Gregorio  Leti,  4  to!.,  12mo, 
Amsterdam,  1700,  IV.  .370-374. 


PREFACE.  XIU 

celebrating  a  real  funeral.  The  ceremony  closed  with 
sprinkling  holy  water  on  the  coffin  in  the  usual  form,  and, 
all  the  assistants  retiring,  the  doors  of  the  chapel  were  shut. 
Then  Charles  rose  out  of  the  coffin,  and  withdrew  to  his 
apartment,  full  of  those  awful  sentiments  which  such  a  sin- 
gular solemnity  was  calculated  to  inspire.  But  either  the 
fatiguing  length  of  the  ceremony,  or  the  impressions  which 
the  image  of  death  left  on  his  mind,  affiacted  him  so  much, 
that  next  day  he  was  seized  with  a  fever.  His  feeble  frame 
could  not  long  resist  its  violence,  and  he  expired  on  the  21st 
of  September,  after  a  life  of  fifty-eight  years,  six  months, 
and  twenty-five  days." 

Siguen^a's  account  of  the  affair,  which  I  have  adopted,  is 
that  Charles,  conceiving  it  to  be  for  the  benefit  of  his  soul, 
and  having  obtained  the  consent  of  his  confessor,  caused  a 
funeral  service  to  be  performed  for  himself,  such  as  he  had 
lately  been  performing  for  his  father  and  mother.  At  this 
service  he  assisted,  not  as  a  corpse,  but  as  one  of  the  specta- 
tors ;  holding  in  his  hand,  like  the  others,  a  waxen  taper, 
which,  at  a  certain  point  of  the  ceremonial,  he  gave  into  the 
hands  of  the  officiating  priest,  in  token  of  his  desire  to  com- 
mit his  soul  to  the  keeping  of  his  Maker.  There  is  not  a 
word  to  justify  the  tale  that  he  followed  the  procession  in  his 
shroud,  or  that  he  simulated  death  in  his  coffin,  or  that  he 
was  left  behind,  shut  up  alone  in  the  church,  when  the  ser- 
vice was  over. 

In  this  story  respecting  an  infirm  old  man,  the  devout  son 
of  a  church  whose  services  for  the  dead  are  of  daily  occur- 
rence, I  can  see  nothing  incredible,  or  very  surprising.  Ab- 
stractedly considered,  it  appears  quite  as  reasonable  that  a 
man  on  the  brink  of  the  grave  should  perform  funeral  rites 
for  himself,  as  that  he  should  perform  such  rites  for  persons 
who  had  been  buried  many  years  before.  But  without  ven- 
turing upon  this  dark  and  dangerous  ground,  it  may  be  safe- 
ly asserted  that  superstition  and  dyspepsia  have  driven  men 
into  extravagances  far  greater  than  the  act  which  Siguen^a 


XIV  •  PREP^ACE. 

has  attributed  to  Charles.  Nor  is  there  any  reason  to  doubt 
the  historian's  veracity  in  a  matter  in  which  the  credit  of  his 
order,  or  the  interest  of  the  church,  is  in  no  way  concerned. 
He  might  perhaps  be  suspected  of  overstating  the  regard 
entertained  by  the  emperor  for  the  friars  of  Yuste,  were  his 
evidence  not  confirmed  by  the  letters  of  the  friar-hating 
household.  But  I  see  no  reason  for  questioning  the  accura- 
cy of  his  account  of  the  imperial  obsequies.  That  account 
was  written  while  he  was  prior  of  the  Escorial,  and  as  such 
almost  in  the  personal  service  of  Philip  the  Second,  a  prince 
who  was  peculiarly  sensitive  on  the  score  of  his  father's 
reputation.*  And  it  was  published  with  the  authority  of  his 
name,  while  men  were  still  alive  who  could  have  contradict- 
ed a  misstatement. 

The  strongest  objection  urged  by  Gonzalez  to  the  story 
rests  on  the  absence  of  all  confirmation  of  it  in  the  letters 
written  from  Yuste.  We  know,  he  says,  that  on  the  26th 
of  August,  1558,  the  emperor  gave  audience  to  Don  Pedro 
Manrique  ;  that  on  the  27th  he  spent  the  greater  part  of  the 
day  in  writing  to  the  princess-regent;  and  that  on  the  28th 
he  had  a  long  conference  with  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega  on  the 
affairs  of  Flanders.  Can  we  therefore  believe  what  is  al- 
leged by  Siguen^a,  that  the  afternoon  of  the  27th  and  the 
morning  of  the  28th  were  given  by  Charles  to  the  perform- 
ance of  his  funeral  rites ;  and  if  rites  so  remarkable  were 
performed,  is  it  credible  that  no  allusion  to  them  should  be 
made  in  letters  written  at  Yuste  on  the  days  when  they  took 
place  ? 

Part  of  the  objection  falls  to  the  ground,  when  reference  is 
made  to  the  folio  of  Siguen^a.  He  says  that  the  obsequies 
were  celebrated,  not  on  the  27th  and  28th,  but  on  the  30th, 
of  August ;  and  it  so  happens,  that  on  that  day  and  the  next 
no  letters  were  written  at  Yuste,  or  at  least,  that  none  bear- 
ing either  of  those  dates  fell  into  the  hands  of  Gonzalez. 

*  See  Chap.  X.  p.  288. 


PREFACE.  XY 

The  emperor's  attack  of  illness,  on  the  30th,  was  ascribed  by 
the  physician  to  his  having  sat  too  long  in  the  sun  in  his  west- 
ern alcove  ;  and  his  being  able  to  sit  there  tallies  with  Si- 
guenca's   statement,  that  he    felt  better   after  his   funeral. 
From  the  absence  of  allusion  in  the  letters  to  a  service  so 
remarkable,  I  infer,  not  that  it  never  took  place,  but  that  the 
secretary  and  chamberlain  did  not  think  it  worthy  of  remark. 
Charles  was  notoriously  devout,  and  very  fond  of  devotional 
exercises  beyond  the  daily  routine  of  religious  observance. 
His  punctuality  in  performing  his  spiritual  duties  may  be 
noted  in  the  Yuste  letters,  where  frequent  mention  is  made 
of  his  receiving  the  Eucharist  at  the  hermitage  of  Belem,  a 
fact  stated  in  proof,  we  may  be  sure,  not  of  his  steadfastness 
in  the  faith,  but  of  the  robustness  of  his  health.     But  of  the 
services  performed  in  the  church  for  the  souls  of  his  de- 
ceased parents  and  wife,  which  both  Siguen^a  and  Sandoval 
have  recorded,  and  which  I  see  no  reason  to  doubt,  no  notice 
whatever  occurs  in  the  letters,  except  a  casual  remark  which 
fell  from  the  pen  of  secretaiy  Gaztelu,  on  the  28th  of  April, 
1558,  that  "  Juan  Gaytan  had  come  to  put  in  order  the  wax 
and  other  things  needful  for  the  honors  of  the  empress,  which 
his  majesty  was  in  the  habit  of  celebrating  on  each  May- 
day."    The  truth  seems  to  be,  that  the  most  hearty  enmity 
prevailed  between  the  Jeromites  and  the  imperial  household  ; 
and  that  the  chamberlain  and  his  people  abstained  from  all 
communications  with  the  monks  not   absolutely  necessary, 
and  left  the  religious  recreations  as  well  as  the  spiritual  in- 
terests of  their  master  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  confessor 
and   the   prior.      Keeping  no  record  of  the  functions  per- 
formed within  the  walls  of  the  convent,  it  is  possible  that  the 
lay  letter- writers  of  Yuste  might  have  passed  over  in  silence 
even  such  a  scene  as  that  fabled  by  Robertson ;  while  in  the 
sober  pages  of  Siguen^a,  there  really  seems  nothing  that  a 
Spaniard  of  15.58,  living  next  door  to  a  convent,  might  not 
have  deemed  unworthy  of  special  notice. 
b 


XVI  PREFACE. 

It  is  remarkable  that  Gonzalez,  while  so  strenuously  deny- 
ing the  credibility  of  the  story,  should  have  furnished,  under 
his  own  hand,  a  piece  of  evidence  of  some  weight  in  its 
favor.  In  an  inventory  of  state  papers  of  Castille,  drawn  up 
by  him  in  1818,  and  existing  at  Simancas,  and  in  duplicate 
in  the  Foreign  Office  at  Madrid,  M.  Gachard  found  the  fol- 
lowing entry  :  — 

"  JYo.  119,  an7i.  1557.  Original  Letters  of  Charles  V., 
icritten  from  Xarandilla  and  Yuste  to  the  Infanta  Juana, 

and   Juan    Vazquez    de    Molina They   treat   of  the 

public  affairs  of  the  time  :    item,  of  the  mourning  stuffs 

OBDERED    FOR    THE    PURPOSE    OF    PERFORMING     HIS     FUNERAL 
HONORS    DURING  HIS  LIFE."  * 

M.  Gachard  supposes  that  this  entry  may  have  been  tran- 
scribed by  Gonzalez  from  the  wrapper  of  a  bundle  of  papers 
which  he  had  found  thus  entitled,  and  the  contents  of  which 
he  had  neglected  to  verify.  If  his  subsequent  researches  did 
not  discover  any  such  documents,  it  is  to  be  regretted  that 
he  had  not  at  least  corrected  the  error  of  the  inventory. 

The  gravest  objection  to  the  account  of  the  affair  which  I 
have  adopted  is,  that  it  is  not  wholly  confirmed  by  the  prior 
Angulo.  In  Angulo's  report,  says  M.  Gachard,  it  is  stated 
that  Charles  ordered  his  obsequies  to  be  performed  during 
his  life ;  but  it  is  not  stated  whether  the  order  was  fulfilled. 
Sandoval,  professing  to  take  Angulo  for  his  guide,  is  alto- 
gether silent  on  the  subject ;  and  as  he  can  hardly  be  sup- 
posed to  have  been  ignorant  of  the  work  of  Siguenca,  there 
is  room  for  the  presumption  that  he  rejected  the  evidence  of 
that  churchman.  But  on  a  mere  presumption,  founded  on 
the  fact  that  a  Benedictine  did  not  choose  to  quote  the  writ- 
ings of  a  Jeromite,  I  cannot  agree  to  discard  evidence  other- 
wise respectable.     I  have  therefore  followed  prior  Siguenca, 

"  "  Item,  de  los  lutos  que  encargd  para  hacerse  las  honras  en  vida."  Bull, 
de  FAcad.  Roy.,  XII.  Premiere  Partie,  p.  257. 


PREFACE.  XVU 

of  the  Escorial,  the  revival  of  whose  version  of  the  story- 
will,  I  hope,  in  time,  counteract  the  inventions  of  later  writ- 
ers, —  inventions  which  I  have  more  than  once  heard  gravely 
recognized  as  instructive  and  authentic  history  in  the  pulpit 
discourses  of  popular  divines. 

It  may  be  a  source  of  disappointment  to  my  readers,  as  it 
is  to  myself,  that  I  have  not  been  able  to  lay  before  them 
any  of  the  original  letters  of  the  emperor  and  his  servants, 
and  their  royal  and  official  correspondents.  In  obtaining 
access,  however,  to  the  manuscript  of  Gonzalez,  I  was  sub- 
jected to  conditions  which  rendered  this  impossible.  The 
French  government,  I  was  informed,  had  entertained  the 
design  of  publishing  the  entire  work,  —  a  design  which  the 
revolution  of  1848  of  course  laid  upon  the  shelf,  but  which,  I 
trust,  will  ere  long  be  carried  into  effect.  Meanwhile,  I  be- 
lieve that  neither  the  memoir  nor  the  letters  contain  any  in- 
teresting fact,  or  trait  of  character,  which  will  not  be  found 
in  the  following  pages,  with  sonie  illustrations  of  the  em- 
peror and  his  history,  gathered  from  other  sources,  which  I 
hope  may  not  be  found  altogether  without  value. 

The  portrait  of  the  emperor,  on  my  title-page,  is  taken 
from  the  fine  print,  engraved  by  Eneas  Vico  from  his  own 
drawing,  —  a  head  surrounded  by  a  florid  framework  of 
architectural  and  emblematical  ornaments.  This  seems  to 
have  been  the  portrait  which  Charles,  according  to  Lodovico 
Dolce,  examined  so  curiously  and  approved  so  highly,  and 
for  which  he  rewarded  Vico  with  two  hundred  crowns.* 
The  drawing  was  probably  made  several  years  before  the 
pl^e  was  engraved,  but  I  have  been  unable  to  find  any  satis- 
factory contemporary  portrait  of  the  emperor  in  his  latter 
days.  Perhaps  none  exists,  as  Charles,  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
five,  considered  himself,  as  he  told  the   painter  Holanda, 


*  Dialogo  delta  Pittura  de  M.  Lod.   Dolce,   srn.   8vo,  Vinegia,  1557, 
fol.  18. 


XVlll  PREFACE. 


already  too  old  for  limning  purposes.  The  eagle  and  orna- 
ments around  the  present  head  are  selected  from  wood-cuts 
in  Spanish  books  of  1545  *  and  1552.f 

Eeib,  S\st  May,  1852. 


POSTSCRIPT   FOR  A  SECOND   EDITION. 

The  favor  with  which  this  work  has  been  received  having 
rendered  a  second  edition  necessary,  I  have  endeavored  to 
acknowledge  my  sense  of  the  kindness  of  the  public,  by 
bestowing  on  its  pages  a  careful  revision,  as  well  as  some 
new  matter  which  I  hope  will  be  found  to  enhance  its  utility 
and  interest,  without  greatly  increasing  its  size. 

128  Pabk  Street,  Grosvenor  Square, 
December  2lst,  1852. 


*  Al.  Ant.  Nebrissensis :  Rerum  a  Fernando  et  EUzabetha,  gest.,  &c., 
fol.,  Granada,  1545. 

t  J.  C.  Calvete :  ^^lage  del  Principe  D.  Phelippe,  fol.,  Anvers,  1552. 
The  neatly  executed  arms  on  the  title-page  bear  the  mark  generally 
attributed  to  Juan  D'Arphe  y  Villafane,  the  famous  goldsmith,  engraver, 
and  artistic  author  of  Valladolid. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 


First  notices  of  the  intention  of 
Charles  V.  to  retire  from  the 
world 1 

Mary,  queen  of  England,  offers         1 
him  her  hand 2  ' 

He  transfers  it  to  his  son  Philip,  i 

who  breaks  off  a  match  with  | 

the  infanta  Mary  of  Portugal      2 

Abdicates  his  crown  1155-6     .      3  , 

Prepares  to  sail  for  Spain,  with  ! 

his  sisters 4 

Eleanor,    queen    dowager    of         I 
France  and  Portugal   ...      4  ' 

Mary,  queen  dowager  of  Hun- 
gary   5 

Thev  sail  from  Flushing  on  the         ' 
17th 7  i 

And  land  on  the  28th  Septem- 
ber, 1556 8 

Laredo 8  ■ 

Want  of  preparations  to  receive         | 
them 8  j 

Arrival  of  Luis  Quixada     .     .       9 

They  set  out  on  the  6th  of  Oc-         | 
tober 11 

Journey  to  Medina  de  Pomar,         1 


PA6B 

where  they  arrive  on  the  9th 
of  October 11-13 

Visitors 14 

Arrival  at  Burgos  on  13th  Oc- 
tober ;  reception  there      .    .     14 

Journey  to  Valladolid  16th- 
21st  October 16 

Don  Carlos  melts  the  emperor 
at  Cabezon 17 

Valladolid 19 

Infanta  Juana,  princess  dow- 
ager of  Brazil,  and  regent  of 
Spain 19-21 

Festivities  at  Valladolid      .     •    21 

Perico  de  Sant  Erbas      ...    22 

Don  Constantino  de  Braganza, 
and  causes  of  ill-will  between 
Spain  and  Portugal     ...    22 

Affairs  submitted  to  the  em- 
peror  23 

Anthony,  duke  of  Vendome, 
proposes  to  sell  his  rights  to 
Navarre      .......     24 

Doubts  as  to  the  emperor's 
choice  of  a  retreat   ....    25 

Don  Carlos 26 


CHAPTER  II. 


The  emperor  sets  out  from 
Valladolid  on  the  4th  No- 
vember   28 

Medina  del  Campo     ....    29 
Eodrigo  de  Dueiias     ....     29 
Periaranda,  Alaraz,  Barco  de 
Avila,  &c 30 


Tomavacas 31 

The  pass  of  Puertonuevo  .  .  32 
Beach  Xarandilla  on  the  12th 

November 33 

The  Vera  of  Plasencia  ...  33 
Reasons     for    the    emperor's 

choice  of  a  retreat  examined  34 


XX 


CONTENTS. 


Village  and  castle  of  Xarandilla  36 
The  count  of  Oropesa    ...    37 

Bad  weather 37 

Public  affairs 38 

Pope  Paul  IV.  and  Henry  II. 

of  France 38,  39 

They  combine  against  Philip 
II. ;  Coligny  invades  Flan- 
ders ;  Duke  of  Guise  in- 
vades Naples 39 

Flanders  defended  by  Emanuel 

Philibert,  duke  of  Savoy  .     .     40 
Naples,  by  duke  of  Alba     .     .    40 


The  infanta  Mary  of  Portugal     42 

Navarre 43 

Barbary 43 

Buildings  at  Yuste  ....  44 
The  emperor  visits  them  .  .  45 
Discontent  of  his  household  .  45 
Quixada;  Gaztelu  .  .  .  45,46 
The  emperor's  love  of  eating  47, 48 
Partridges  from  Gama,  and 
sausages  from  Tordesillas, 
and  presents  to  liis  larder  49 
Qoixada's  fears      .     .     .     .   49,  50 


CHAPTER  III. 


The  household  of  the  emperor     51 
The  confessor,  Fray  Juan  de 

Regla 51 

The  chamberlain,  Luis  Quixada   53 
His  wife,  Magdalena  de  Ulloa, 

and  Don  John  of  Austria      .     54 
The  secretary,  Martin  de  Gaz- 
telu   57 

"William  Van  Male,  gentleman 

of  the  chamber 57 

He    translates    the    emperor's 

Memoirs 58 

Is  made  to  print  Acuna's  trans- 
lation of  Chevalier  Delibere   .     59 

His  letters 61 

Loss  of  his  books 62 

Marriage 63 

Henry  Mathys,  or  Mathisio,  the 

physician 64 

Dr.  Giovanni  Antonio  Mole, 

and  Dr.  Comelio    ....     64 
Giovanni  or  Juanelo  Torriano, 

the  mechanician      ....     65 
Visitors  of  the  emperor  ...    65 
Father  Francisco  Borja,  of  the 
company  of  Jesus  ....     65 


His  history 65-69 

Visits  Xarandilla  on  the  17  th 

December,  1556  ....  69 
Conversations  with  the  em- 
peror      70-74 

Don  Luis  de  Avila  y  Zuniga  .  74 
His  Commentaries  on  the  War  in 

Germany 75 

Visits  Xarandilla  on  the  2l8t 

January,  1557 77 

The  archbishop  of  Toledo,  and 

the  bishop  of  Plasencia    .     .  77 

Emperor's  health 78 

An  attack  of  gout 78 

Senna  wine .79 

Neapolitan  manna      ....  79 

Lorenzo  Pires 79 

News  from  Italy 80 

Emperor's  disgust 80 

His  anxiety  for  the  safety  of 

Oran 80 

"Works  at  Yuste 81 

Servants  paid  off,  and  take  leave  81 
Removal  to  Yuste  on  the  3d 

February,  1557 82 

Blunder  of  the  prior  ....  83 


CHAPTER  IV. 


Order  of  St.  Jerome  .... 

Yuste,  —  its  site 

Its  foundation  in  1408,  and  its 
early  history 


Its  remarkable  monks     .     .    88,  89 
Fr.  Hernando   de  Corral,  the 

literary  friar 89 

Fr.  Ant.'de  Villacastin  ...    91 


CONTENTS. 


XXI 


Fr.  Juan  de  Ortega  .  .  . 
The  charities  of  Yiiste  .  • 
The  "  palacio  "  of  Yuste 
Prospect  from  the  windows 
The  great  '•  nogal "  of  Yuste 
Domestic  arrangements  .  . 
List  of  the  chief  members  of  the 
household,  with  their  sala- 
ries   95, 

Emperor's  health,  and  employ- 
ments of  the  physicians    .     . 
Furniture  of  the  palace  .     .     . 

Plate 

Emperor's  dress 


92   Pictures  and  portraits     .     .     .100 

92  Books 102 

93  Music 103 

94  The   chaplains,   Fr.   Fran,  de 

94  Yillalva,  Fr.  Juan  de  A90- 

95  loras,  Fr.  Juan  de  Santan- 
dres 104 

Emperor's  day 105 

Torriano  and  his  clocks .  .  .  106 
His  mechanical  toys  ....  107 
Emperor's  pet  birds,  and  his 

98  j      shooting  excursions     .     .     .108 

99  ;  His  last  appearance  on  horse- 

99        back 108 


96 


CHAPTER  V. 


The  household  become  more 

reconciled  to  Yuste  .  .  .110 
Monsieur  Lachaulx  .  .  .  .110 
Improvement  in  the  emperor's 

health Ill 

His  attention  to  business  .  .  112 
His  style  and  title  ....  112 
He  accredits  an  ambassador  to 

Portugal 112 

Petitioners 112 

Refutation  of  the  tale  that  he 
rcpentedof  his  retirement  113-115 

His  revenue 115 

Punctually  paid 116 

The    financial    difficulties     of 

Spain 117 

The  princess-regent  seizes  up- 
on the  bullion  belonging  to 
the  traders  of  Seville,  who 
resist  her  officers  with  suc- 
cess     118 

The     erappror's      indignation 

against  them  .  .  .  .118-120 
Foreign  affairs:    Ruy  Gomez 

de  Silva      ...'...,  120 
He  is  lodged  in  the  convent    .  121 
Emperor  consulted  as  to  send- 
ing   Don    Carlos    to  Flan- 
ders   121 

War  in  the  Netherlands  and 

Navarre 122 

Affiiirs  of  Italy 122 

Duke  of  Guise  invades  Naples  122 
Duke  of  Alba  defends  it      .    .  122 


Solyman  the  Magnificent    .    .123 

The  pirates  of  tlie  Mediterra- 
nean   123-125 

Levies  for  the  army  in  Flanders  125 

The  emperor  appeals  to  the 
church  for  a  loan     .     .     .     .  1 25 

The  archbishops  of  Toledo  and 
Zaragoza,  and  the  bishop  of 
Cordova 125 

Archbishop  Valdes  of  Seville     126 

His  excuses   . 127 

His  discussion  with  Ochoa,  and 
its  result 127  -  129 

Second  visit  of  Ruy  Gomez  de 
Silva  to  Yuste 129 

Anthony,  king  of  Navan-e,  and 
his  agents 129,  130 

Death  of  John  HI.,  king  of 
Portugal 130 

Jealousy  between  Portugal  and 
Spain 131 

Emperor  condoles  with  his  sis- 
ter, queen  Catherine    .     .     .131 

The  princess  of  Brazil  disap- 
pointed of  the  regency  of 
Portugal 132 

Battle  of  St.  Quentin  ....  132 

Joy  occasioned  by  the  news  at 
Yuste 133 

The  dilatory  policy  of  Philip 
II 134 

Guise  retreats  from  the  Nea- 
politan frontier 134 

Alba  advances  towards  Rome    135 


xxu 


CONTENTS. 


Shameful  treaty  between  Philip 

II.  and  the  Pope      .     .    .    .135 
Emperor's  displeasure     .     .     .136 

Don  Carlos 138 

Letters  from  his  tutor,  D.  Gar- 


cia de  Toledo,  to   the   em- 
peror          138, 139 

Opinion  of  the  Venetian  envoy 
at  Bruxelles 139 


CHAPTER  VI. 


Emperor's  good  health  .  .  .  141 
Famine   and  sickness  in    the 

Vera 142 

Emperor's  garden  and  its  im- 
provements      142 

His  poultry  and  fish-ponds  .     .  143 
His  care  for  his  domestic  com- 
forts   143 

Qaixada  obtains  leave  of  ab- 
sence       144 

The  friars  become  unruly    .    .145 

Quixada's  return 145 

His  dislike  to  Yuste  .  .  .  .146 
Death  of  Fr.  Juan  de  Ortega  .  146 
Turbulent  peasants  of  Quacos  148 
J.  G.  Sepulveda,  the  historian, 

visits  Yuste 149 

D.  Luis  de  Avila 150 

His  house  at  Plasencia  and  its 

frescoes 151 

His  Commentaries  on  the  German 

War 151 

Partiality  of  the  emperor  for 

him 152 

Fresco  picture  of  the  battle  of 
Benti,  and  the  remark  of  the 
emperor  upon  it 153 


Report  of  the   emperor's    re- 
moval to  Navarre    ....  154 
D.  Francisco  Bolivar  ....  154 
D.  Martin  de  Avendano .     .    .155 
Presents     to     the     emperor's 
larder    from    the    friars   of 
Guadalupe,    the    bishop    of 
Segovia,  &c.,  and  the  duch- 
ess of  Bejar 155 

Visits  of  queens  Eleanor  and 

Mary 156 

Their  correspondence  with  the 

duke  of  Infantado  .  .  .  .157 
The  infanta  Mary  of  Portugal  158 
Jealousy  between  Portugal  and 

Spain 158 

The  queens  go  to  Badajoz  .    .159 
Hurricane  at  Yuste     .     .     .     .160 
Father  Francisco  Borja  sent  to 
Lisbon   by  the    princess-re- 
gent   160 

Returns  by  way  of  Yuste    .    .161 
Emperor's  confidence  in  him  ..  162 
Borja's  judgment  between  his 
son  and  the  admiral  of  Ara- 

gon 162 

Alms  given  to  Borja  .    .     .    .163 


CHAPTER  VII. 


The  emperor's  health  declines    164 

Burglary  at  Yuste 164 

Dispute  with  the  corregidor  of 

Plasencia    .     .  ^     .     .    .     .165 
Don  Juan  de  Acuna  .    .    .    .165 
The  treaty  between  Philip  II. 
and  the  pope,  and  the  em- 
peror's   dissatisfaction    with 

it 165,  166 

Duke  of  Alba,  and  his  share  in 
the  business 167 


Affairs  in  Flanders,  and  Span- 
ish losses 169 

Duke  of  Guise  takes  Calais     .  169 
The  emperor's  regret .    .     .    .170 
Reports  of  the   pregnancy  of 
Mary,    queen    of    England 
and  Spain,  and  her  death     .  171 

Emperor's  gout 171 

Meeting  at  Badajoz  between 
the  queens  and  the  infanta 
Mary  of  Portugal    .    .    .    .172 


CONTENTS. 


XXlll 


Qneen    Eleanor   taken  ill  at 

Talaverilla 173 

Dies,  leaving  her  fortune  to  the 

infanta  of  Portugal .  .  .  .  174 
Grief  of  the  emperor  .  .  .  .175 
Luis  de  Avila  visits  him  .  .176 
Queen  Mary  at  Yuste  .  .  .176 
Removes  to  Xarandilla  .  .  .177 
Goes  to   Valladolid,  attended 

by  Quixada 177 

Emperor  requests  that  she  may 
be  consulted  in  public  af- 
fairs   178 

The  princess-regent  refuses  .  178 
Emperor's  scheme  of  finance  .  179 
Seville  bullion  case  ....  179 
The  grand  inquisitor  refuses  to 


attend   the  body  of   qneen 
Juana  to  Granada  .     .     .    .180 
Emperor's  health  and  occupa- 
tions  181 

His  fondness  for  religious  cere- 
monies   181 

He  flogs  himself  in  the  choir 

on  Fridays  in  Lent      .     .     .  1 83 

His  familiarity  with  the  friars  .  184 

His  good-nature  to  his  servants  185 

He  is  disturbed  by  women  at 

the  convent  gate      .    .    .    .186 

The  remedy 187 

The  renunciation  of  the  impe- 
rial crown  completed  3d  May, 

1558 187 

Consequent  order  of  Charles    .  187 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


Church  in  danger 189 

Church    abuses    and     reform 

movement 190,191 

Heretical  books 192 

Spanish  heretics  not  Protes- 
tants   194 

Causes  of  the  suppression  of 

heresy  in  Spain  .     .     .  195-197 
Measures  of  the  grand  inquisi- 
tor Valdes 198 

Dr.  Aug.  Cazalla 198 

Letters  and  words  of  the  em- 
peror       199 

Fr.  Domingo  de  Roxas  .  .  .199 
Progress  of  the  persecution  .  200 
Anxiety  of  the  emperor  .  .  .201 
His  letters  to  the  regent .  .  .  201 
His  letter  to  the  king,  and  its 

autograph  postscript  .  201,202 
The  king's  memorandum  .  .  202 
Quixada's  interview  with  the 

grand  inquisitor 202 

The  inquisitor's  measures  de- 
tailed in  letter  to'  the  em- 
peror       203 

Censure  of  books 203 

Catalogue  of  prohibited  books, 

1559 204 

Dr.  Mathys  bums  his  Bible  .  205 
Father  Borja's  son  ....  205 
Pompeyo  Leoni      .     .     .     •     •  206 


Fr.  Domingo  de  Guzman    .    .  206 
Death  of  Const.  Ponce  de  la 

Fuente 206 

Of  Dr.  Cazalla 207 

Of  Fr.  Fro.  de  Roxas,  and  D. 

de  Guzman 208 

The  emperor's  hatred  of  her- 
esy, and  regrets  for  having 
spared  the  life  of  Luther  .     .  209 
Fr.  Bart.  Carranza  de  Miranda 

made  archbishop  of  Toledo    210 
Account  of  him  ^-     •    •     211,212 
Jealousy  of  Valdes      ....  212 
Carranza's  reception  at  Valla- 
dolid        213 

War  in  Flanders 214 

Duke   of  Guise  takes  Thion- 

ville 215 

Battle  of  Gravelines  gained  by 

the  Spaniards 215 

Turkish  fleet  on  the  coast  of 

Spain .216 

Menorca    attacked,   and    Ciu- 

dadella  sacked 217 

Measures  of  defence    ....  218 
Quixada  returns  to  Yuste  with 
his  wife  and  Don  John  of 

Austria 219 

Illness  of  the  regent   ....  220 
Her  proposal  for  changing  the 
capital  of  Spain 220 


XXIV 


CONTENTS. 


Affair  of  the  adelantado  of 
Canary 221 

Death  of  the  prior  of  Yuste     .  222 

Emperor  refuses  to  interfere 
in  the  election  of  his  succes- 
sor      222 

Fr.  Martin  de  Angulo  appoint- 
ed       222 

Visits  of  Don  Luis  de  Avila, 
the  bishop  of  Avila,  count  of 


Oropesa,   Garcilasso    de    la 

Vega,  &c 222,  223 

Father  Fro.  Borja 224 

The  emperor's  Memoirs  ,  .  .  224 
His  anxiety  as  to  his  treatment 

by  historians 225 

Ocampo  and  Sepulveda  .  .  .  225 
Courtly  reply  of  Borja  .  .  .  226 
KecoUections    of  him   in   the 

Vera 227 


CHAPTER   IX. 


Emperor's  health   during  the 

spring  and  summer  of  1558  228 
Meals  and  symptoms  ....  228 
The  physician  becomes  alarmed 

in  August 229 

Emperor's  attention  to  religious 

rites 230 

Performs  his  own  obsequies  on 

the  30th  of  August ,  .  .  .231 
Taken  ill  next  day  .  .  .  .232 
Meditations  on  his  wife's  por- 
trait and  other  pictures  .  .  232 
Laid  on  his  death-bed  .  .  .  233 
Details  of  his  illness  ....  233 

Making  of  his  will 233 

Dr.  Cornelio  sent  for  .     .     .     .  234 
Slight  improvement  in  the  case  234 
Physic,     delirium,     and     let- 
ters     234,235 

Codicil  to  the  will 235 

News  of  the  defeat  of  the  count 

of  Alcaudete  in  Africa  236,  237 
Emperor  signs  the  codicil  .  .  238 
Its    recommendations    to    the 

king  to  put  down  heresy  .  .  238 
Regla's   suggestion    regarding 

Don  John  of  Austria  .  .  .  239 
Queen  of  Hungary  consents  to 

go  to  Flanders 239 

Emperor's  illness  increases  240,  241 
He  receives  extreme  unction    .  242 


His  last  private  conference  with 

Quixada 243 

He  insists  on  receiving  the  eu- 

charist 244 

His  devoutness 244 

Archbishop  of  Toledo  arrives, 
and  sees  the  emperor  .    .     .  245 

Closing  scene 246 

Death 247 

Preparations  for  the  interment  248 
Funeral  sermons  and  rites  .  .  249 
Remarks  on   the  character  of 

Charles 250,  251 

On    his    abdication    and     its 

causes 251  -255 

His   love  of  monks  and  con- 
vents       255 

It  descends  to  his  children  256,  257 
His  disappointments  at  YuSte  258 
The    prudence    and    extreme 

dulness  of  his  writings     ,     .259 
His  popular  manners  ....  260 
His  religious  moderation  in  the 
world,  and  his  bigotry  in  the 

cloister 261,  262 

The  Caro/ea  of  Sempere.    .     .263 
The  Carlo  Famoso  of  Capata    .  263 
Extracts  from  the  latter  .     .     .  264 
Mention  of  Don  John  of  Aus- 
tria in  the  poem 265 


CHAPTER  X. 


Portents  at  the  death  of  the 
emperor 266 


Contents  of  the  codicil  to  his 
will 267-269 


CONTENTS. 


Paper  relating  to  Don  John  of 

Austria 270 

Tlie  princess-regent's  orders  re- 
specting his  personal  prop- 
erty     271 

Qnixada    and    his    wife,    and 

Don  John 271 

Note  on  the  traditional  origin 

of  the  name  of  Quacos     .     .  272 
Funeral  honors  of  the  emperor 

at  Valladolid 272 

At  Bruxelles,  &c 273 

At  Lisbon,  Rome,  and  Lon- 
don     275 

Emperor's  body  removed  to  the 

Escorial  in  1574 .     .     .     275,276 
Placed    in    the    Pantheon   by 

Philip  IV.  in  1654  ....  276 
Remark  of  Philip  IV.     .     .     .277 
The     emperor's     Sarcophagus 
said  to  have  been  opened  by 
Charles  III.  for  Mr.  Beck- 
ford   278 

Queen  Mary  of  Hungary  .  .  279 
Third  marriage  of  Philip  IL  .  280 
His  return  to  Spain  ....  280 
The  princess-regent  Juana  281,  282 
Luis  Quixada     .     .    .     .282-285 

His  death 286 

Dona  Magdalena  de  Ulloa  .  .  286 
Extract  from  a  letter  of  Don 

John  of  Austria 286 

Don  John's  affection  for  her    .  287 


Her  death 288 

William  Van  Male     ....  288 
Correspondence  between  Philip 
II.  and  the  bishop  of  Arras 
respecting  his  papers  .    288,  289 
Martin  de  Gaztelu 290 


Fr.  Juan  de  Regla 290 

Fr.  Francisco  de  Villalva  .  .291 
Fr.  Juan  de  Aijoloras  .  .  .  292 
Fr.  Juan  de  Santandres  .  .  .  292 
Fr.  Antonio  de  Villacastin  .  .  293 
Giovanni  Torriano  .  .  294-296 
Father  Francisco  Borja  .  296  -  300 

His  beatification 300 

Archbishop   Carranza  of  To- 
ledo    301-306 

Monastery  of  Ynste  ....  307 
Visited  by  Philip  IL  in  1570  .  307 
Repaired  by  Philip  IV.  in  1638  309 

The  monks 309 

Visit  of  D.  Antonio  Ponz  .  .310 
Visit  of  M.  Ekborde  .  .  .  .310 
The  monastery   burnt  by   the 

French  in  1809 311 

Visit  of  Lord  John  Russell  in 

1813 311 

Robbed  by  the   Constitution- 
alists in  1820 312 

Visited  by  Mr.  Ford  in  1832  .  312 
Monasteries      suppressed      in 

1837 313 

State    of    the    monastery   in 
1849 313,314 


APPENDIX. 


Extracts  from  the  inventory  of  the  effects  of  Charles  the  Fifth  at 

Yuste 315 

Books 316 

Plate 317 

Jewels 319 

Crucifixes,  paintings,  &c 320 

Furniture  of  the  emperor's  chamber 321 

Stable,  &c 321 


THE 

CLOISTER    LIFE 

OP  THE 

EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH. 


CHAPTER    I. 


THE   BAY   OF   BISCAY;    LAREDO;    BURGOS,   AND 
VALLADOLID. 

It  is  not  possible  to  determine  the  precise  time  at 
which  the  emperor  Charles  the  Fifth  formed  his  cele- 
brated resolution  to  exchange  the  cares  and  honors  of 
a  throne  for  the  religious  seclusion  of  a  cloister.  It 
is  certain,  however,  that  this  resolution  was  formed 
many  years  before  it  was  carried  into  effect.  With 
his  empress,  Isabella  of  Portugal,  who  died  in  1538, 
Charles  had  agreed  that,  so  soon  as  state  affairs  and 
the  ages  of  their  children  should  permit,  they  were  to 
retire  for  the  remainder  of  their  days,  —  he  into  a  con- 
vent of  friars,  and  she  into  a  nunnery.  In  1542,  he 
confided  his  design  to  the  duke  of  Gandia ;  and  in 
1546,  it  had  been  whispered  at  court,  and  was  men- 
tioned by  Bernardo  Navagiero,  the  sharp-eared  envoy 
of  Venice,  in  a  report  to  the  doge.* 

*  Relatione,  Luglio,  1546;    printed  in  Correspondence  of  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.    Edited  by  Rev.  W.  Bradford.    8vo,  London,  1850,  p.  475. 
1 


Z  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

In  1548,  Philip,  heir  apparent  of  the  Spanish  mon- 
archy, was  sent  for  by  his  father  to  receive  the  oath 
of  allegiance  from  the  states  of  the  Netherlands  ;  and 
in  1551,  he  invested  him  with  the  duchy  of  Milan. 
When  only  in  his  eighteenth  year,  the  prince  had 
been  left  a  widower  by  the  death  of  his  wife,  Mary, 
daughter  of  John  the  Third  of  Portugal.  On  his  re- 
turn to  Spain,  he  entered  into  negotiations  for  the 
hand  of  a  second  Portuguese  bride,  his  cousin,  the  in- 
fanta Mary,  daughter  of  his  father's  sister  Eleanor,  by 
the  late  king,  Don  Emanuel.  After  delays  unusual 
even  in  Peninsular  diplomacy,  these  negotiations  had 
almost  reached  a  successful  issue,  when  the  emperor, 
on  the  80th  of  July,  1553,  from  Flanders,  addressed 
Philip  in  a  letter  which  produced  a  very  memorable 
effect  on  the  politics  of  Europe.  Mary  Tudor,  he 
wrote,  had  inherited  the  crown  of  England,  and  had 
given  him  an  early  hint  of  her  gracious  willingness  to 
become  his  second  empress.  For  himself,  this  tempt- 
ing opportunity  must  be  foregone.  "  Were  the  do- 
minions of  that  kingdom  greater  even  than  they  are," 
he  said,  "  they  should  not  move  me  from  my  purpose, 
—  a  purpose  of  quite  another  kind."  But  he  desired 
his  son  to  take  the  matter  into  his  serious  considera- 
tion, and  to  weigh  well  the  merits  of  the  English 
princess  before  he  resolved  to  conclude  any  other 
match.  The  prompt  and  decisive  reply  of  the  infan- 
ta's lover,  who  was  rarely  prompt  or  decisive,  shows 
how  early  in  life  he  deserved  the  title,  afterwards  given 
to  him  by  historians,  of  the  Prudent.  Concurring  in 
the  emperor's  opinion,  that  one  or  other  of  them 
ought  to  marry  the  queen  of  England,  and  seeing  that 
matrimony  was  distasteful  to  his  father,  he  professed 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  O 

his  readiness  to  take  the  duty  on  himself.  He  had, 
happily,  not  absolutely  concluded  the  Portuguese 
match,  and  he  would  therefore  at  once  proceed  to 
break  it  off,  on  the  plea  that  the  dowry  promised  was 
insufficient.  Father  and  son  being  thus  of  one  mind, 
that  diplomatic  campaign  was  opened  which  ended 
in  adding  another  kingdom  to  the  hymeneal  conquests 
for  which  the  house  of  Austria  was  already  famous,* 
and  in  placing  Philip,  as  king-consort,  on  the  throne 
of  England.  On  the  same  day  when  Charles  sug- 
gested to  his  son  the  propriety  of  breaking  faith  with 
his  favorite  sister's  only  child,  he  signed  the  first  or- 
der for  money  to  be  spent  in  building  his  retreat  at 
Yuste,  a  Jeromite  convent  in  Estremadura  in  Spain  ; 
and  as  soon  as  the  treachery  had  been  completed  and 
the  prize  secured,  he  began  seriously  to  prepare  for  a 
life  of  piety  and  repose. 

That  Philip  might  meet  his  English  bride  on  equal 
terms,  the  emperor  had  ceded  to  him,  before  his  mar- 
riage, in  1554,  the  titles  of  king  of  Naples  and  duke 
of  Milan.  Recalling  him  from  Windsor,  in  1555,  he 
assembled  the  states  at  Brussels,  on  the  25th  of  Oc- 
tober, and  made  his  solemn  abdication  of  the  domains 
of  the  house  of  Burgundy  in  favor  of  the  king  of  Na- 
ples and  England.  On  the  16th  of  January,  in  the 
following  year,  he  signed  and  sealed  a  similar  act  for 
the  Spanish  kingdoms ;  and  on  the  27th  of  August, 
he  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  young  prince  of  Orange, 

*  And  so  tersely  celebrated  in  the  epigram  of  Matthias  Corvinus : 

Bella  gerant  alii ;  tu  felix  Austria  nube ! 
Nam  qu£E  Mars  aliis  dat  tibi  regna  Venus. 
Fight  those  who  will ;  let  well-starred  Austria  wed, 
And  conquer  kingdoms  in  the  marriage  bed. 


4  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

the  famous  William  the  Silent,  a  deed  of  renunciation 
of  the  imperial  crown,  to  be  laid  before  the  electoral 
diet,  which  was  then,  as  was  already  understood,  to 
confer  the  vacant  dignity  on  Charles's  brother  Ferdi- 
nand, king  of  the  Romans  and  actual  sovereign  of  the 
archduchies  of  Austria. 

These  arrangements  made,  early  in  September, 
1556,  a  fleet  assembled  at  Flushing,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Don  Luis  de  Carvajal,  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
veying the  retiring  emperor  to  Spain.  He  was  at- 
tended to  the  coast  by  his  son,  now  Philip  the  Second 
of  Spain,  by  his  nephew  and  daughter,  Maximilian 
and  Mary,  king  and  queen  of  Bohemia,  and  by  the 
many  nobles  of  the  Netherlands.  He  was  likewise 
accompanied  by  his  two  sisters,  who  were  to  be  the 
companions  of  his  voyage,  being,  like  himself,  about 
to  seek  retirement  in  Spain. 

Of  these  royal  ladies,  the  elder  was  the  gentle  and 
once  beautiful  Eleanor,  queen  dowager  of  Portugal 
and  of  France.  She  was  now  in  her  fifty-eighth  year, 
and  much  broken  in  health.  In  youth  the  favorite 
sister  of  the  emperor,  and  in  later  days  always  ad- 
dressed by  him  as  madame  ma  meiJleur  swnr*  she  had 
nevertheless  been  the  peculiar  victim  of  his  policy  and 
ambition.  As  a  mere  lad,  he  had  driven  from  his  court 
her  first  love,  Frederick,  prince-palatine,  that  he  might 
strengthen  his  alliance  with  Portugal  by  marrying  her 
to  Emanuel  the  Great,  a  man  old  enough  to  be  her 
father,  and  tottering  on  the  brink  of  the  grave.  When 
she  became  a  widow,  two  years  afterwards,  her  hand 

*  See  his  letters  to  her  amongst  the  Papiers  d'etat  du  Cardinal  de 
Granvelle  d'apri.s  les  manuscrits  de  la  Biblioth.  de  Besanqon,  Tom.  I.  - 
VIII.    410,  Palis,  1840  - 50. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  O 

was  used  by  her  brother,  first  as  a  bait  to  flatter  the 
hopes  and  fix  the  fidelity  of  the  unfortunate  Constable 
de  Bourbon,  and  next  as  a  means  of  soothing  the 
wounded  pride  and  obtaining  the  alliance  of  his  cap- 
tive, the  constable's  liege  lord.  The  French  marriage 
was  probably  the  more  unhappy  of  the  two.  Francis 
the  First  never  forgot  that  he  had  signed  the  contract 
in  prison,  and  speedily  forsook  his  new  wife  for  the 
sake  of  mistresses,  new  or  old.  The  queen  was 
obliged  to  solace  herself  with  such  reflections  as  were 
plentifully  supplied  in  the  pedantic  Latin  verses  of 
the  day,  in  which  the  world  was  told,  that  whereas 
the  fair  Helen  of  Troy  had  been  a  cause  of  war,  the 
no  less  lovely  Eleanor  of  Austria  was  a  bond  and 
pledge  of  peace.  She  bore  her  husband's  neglect  with 
heroic  meekness :  she  was  an  affectionate  mother  to 
the  children  of  her  predecessor,  and,  so  far  as  her  in- 
fluence extended,  an  unwearied  peacemaker  between 
the  houses  of  Valois  and  Austria.  Since  1547,  the 
year  of  her  second  widowhood,  she  had  lived  chiefly 
at  the  court  of  the  emperor,  whose  last  public  act  of 
brotherly  unkindness  had  been  to  instigate  his  son  to 
break  his  troth  to  her  only  daughter. 

The  other  sister,  Mary,  queen  dowager  of  Hungary, 
was  five  years  younger  than  Eleanor,  and  a  woman 
of  a  very  different  stamp.  Her  husband,  Louis  the 
Second,  had  been  slain  in  1526,  fighting  the  Turk 
among  the  marshes  of  Mohacz.  Inconsolable  for  his 
loss,  Mary,  then  only  twenty-three  years  of  age,  took 
a  vow  of  perpetual  widowhood,  a  vow  from  which  she 
never  sought  a  dispensation.  In  spite  of  this  act  of 
feminine  devotion,  she  was,  even  in  that  age  of  man- 
ly women,  remarkable  for  her  intrepid  spirit  and  her 
1* 


6  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

iron  frame.  To  much  of  the  bodily  strength  of  her 
Polish  ancestress,  Cymburgis  of  the  hammer-fist,  she 
united  the  cool  head  and  the  strong  will  of  her  brother 
Charles.  Hunting  and  hawking  she  loved  like  Mary 
of  Burgundy,  and  her  horsemanship  must  have  de- 
lighted the  knightly  heart  of  her  grandsire  Maxi- 
milian. Not  only  could  she  bring  down  her  deer  with 
unerring  aim,  but,  tucking  up  her  sleeves,  and  drawing 
her  knife,  she  would  cut  the  animal's  throat,  and  rip 
up  its  belly  in  as  good  style  as  the  best  of  the  royal 
foresters?*  It  was  to  her  that  the  imperial  ambassador 
in  England  made  known  Mary  Tudor's  desire  for 
some  "  wild-boar  venison,"  to  gr^ce  the  feasts  which 
followed  her  coronation,  —  a  desire  which  was  forth- 
with gratified  by  the  arrival  in  London  of  the  lieuten- 
ant of  the  royal  venery  of  Flanders,  with  a  prime  six- 
year-old  boar,  as  a  gift  from  the  queen  of  Hungary.f 
Roger  Ascham,  meeting  the  sporting  dowager  as  she 
galloped  into  Spa,  far  ahead  of  her  suite,  although  it 
was  her  tenth  day  in  the  saddle,  recorded  the  fact  in 
his  note-book,  with  a  remark  which  briefly  summed 
up  the  popular  opinion  of  her  character.  "  She  is," 
says  he,  "  a  virago ;  she  is  never  so  well  as  when  she 
is  flinging  on  horseback  and  hunting  all  the  night 
long.":):  To  the  firm  hand  of  this  Amazon  sister  the 
emperor  very  wisely  committed  the  government  of  the 
turbulent  Low  Countries.  During  more  than  twenty 
stormy  years  she  administered  it  with  much  vigor  and 

*  Libro  de  la  Monteria  del  Rey  D.  Ahnso ;  fol,  Sevilla,  1582.  See 
the  Discurso  de  G.  Argote  de  Molina,  fol.  19. 

t  Papiers  de  Granvelle,  IV.  121-135. 

J  P.  Fraser  Tytler's  Orig.  Letters  of  the  Reigns  of  K.  Edioard  VI.  and 
Q.  Mary,  2  vols.,  8vo,  London,  1839,  II.  p.  127. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  / 

tolerable  success,  now  foiling  the  ambitious  schemes 
of  Denmark  and  of  France ;  now  repressing  Anabap- 
tist or  Lutheran  risings ;  and  always  gathering  as  she 
could  the  sinews  of  war  for  the  imperial  armies  abroad. 
Her  latest  exploit  was  a  foray,  during  the  siege  of 
Metz,  into  French  Picardy,  which  she  led  in  person 
with  so  much  courage  and  conduct,  that  Henry  the 
Second  found  it  necessary  to  come  to  the  rescue  of 
his  province.  She  was  now  in  her  fifty-second  year, 
—  bronzed  rather  than  broken  by  her  toils,  and  still  fit 
for  the  council  or  the  saddle. 

The  vessel  prepared  for  the  emperor  was  a  Biscayan 
ship  of  five  hundred  and  sixty-five  tons,  the  Espiritu 
Santo,  but  generally  called  the  Bertendona,  from  the 
name  of  the  commander.  The  cabin  of  Charles  was 
fitted  up  with  green  hangings,  a  swing  bed  with  cur- 
tains of  the  same  color,  and  eight  glass  windows. 
His  personal  suite  consisted  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
persons.  The  queens  were  accommodated  on  board 
a  Flemish  vessel,  and  the  entire  fleet  numbered  fifty- 
six  sail.  The  royal  party  embarked  on  the  13th  of 
September,  but  the  state  of  the  weather  did  not  allow 
them  to  put  to  sea  until  the  17th.  The  next  day,  as 
they  passed  between  the  white  cliffs  of  Kent  and  Ar- 
tois,  they  fell  in  with  an  English  squadron  of  five  sail, 
of  which  the  admiral  came  on  board  the  emperor's 
ship,  and  kissed  his  hand.  On  the  20th,  contrary 
winds  drove  them  to  take  shelter  under  the  isle  of 
Portland  for  a  night  and  a  day.  The  weather  contin- 
uing unfavorable,  on  the  22d  the  emperor  ordered 
the  admiral  to  steer  for  the  isle  of  Wight,  but  a  fair 
breeze  springing  up  as  they  came  in  sight  of  that 
island,  the  fleet  once  more  took  a  westerly  course,  and 


8 


THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


gained  the  coast  of  Biscay  without  further  adventure. 
On  the  afternoon  of  Monday,  the  28th  of  September, 
the  good  ship  Bertendona  cast  anchor  in  the  road  of 
Laredo. 

The  gulf  of  Laredo  is  a  forked  inlet  of  irregular 
form,  opening  towards  the  east,  and  walled  from  the 
northwestern  blast  by  the  rocky  headland  of  Santona. 
The  town,  with  its  castle,  stands  at  the  mouth  of  the 
gulf  on  the  southeastern  shore.  Once  a  commercial 
station  of  the  Romans,  it  became  an  important  arse- 
nal of  St.  Ferdinand  of  Castille.  From  Laredo,  Ra- 
mon Bonifaz  sailed  to  the  Guadalquivir  and  the  con- 
quest of  Seville ;  and  a  Laredo-built  ship  struck  the 
fatal  blow  to  the  Moorish  capital,  by  bursting  the 
bridge  of  boats  and  chains  which  connected  the  Gold- 
en Tower  with  the  suburb  of  Triana,  an  exploit  com- 
memorated by  St.  Ferdinand  in  the  augmentation  of 
a  ship  to  the  municipal  bearings  of  Laredo.  After 
some  centuries  of  prosperity,  the  town  was  cruelly 
sacked,  in  1639,  by  the  archbishop  of  Bordeaux,  the 
apostolic  admiral  of  Louis  the  Thirteenth.  Santan- 
der  rose  upon  its  ruins  ;  its  population  dwindled  from 
fourteen  to  three  thousand ;  fishing  craft  only  were 
found  in  its  sand-choked  haven ;  yet,  true  to  its  mar- 
tial fame,  it  sent  a  gallant  band  of  seamen  to  perish 
at  Trafalgar. 

This  ancient  seaport  was  now  the  scene  of  a  de- 
barkation more  remarkable  than  any  which  Spain  had 
known  since  Columbus  stepped  ashore  at  Palos,  with 
his  red  men  from  the  New  World.  Landing  on  the 
evening  of  the  28th  of  September,  1556,*  the  emperor 

•  De  Thou  {Uist.  sui  Temp.,  Lib.  XVII.)  says,  that  Charles  on  landing 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE     FIFTH.  » 

was  received  by  Pedro  Manrique,  bishop  of  Sala- 
manca, and  Durango,  an  alcalde  of  the  court,  who 
were  in  waiting  there  by  order  of  the  infanta  Juana, 
regent  of  Spain.  He  was  joined  on  the  following 
morning  by  the  two  queens.  The  arrival  of  the  royal 
party  seemed  to  take  the  bishop  and  the  town  by  sur- 
prise, for  few  preparations  had  as  yet  been  made -for 
its  reception.  The  admiral  Carvajal  instantly  de- 
spatched his  brother  Alonso  to  court  with  the  intelli- 
gence, which  he  delivered  at  Valladolid  on  the  1st  of 
October.  The  princess-regent  had  already  given  or- 
ders to  Colonel  Luis  Quixada,  the  emperor's  cham- 
berlain, who  had  preceded  him  to  Spain,  to  prepare  a 
residence  for  her  father.  These  arrangements  com- 
pleted, Quixada  had  returned  to  his  country-house  at 
Villagarcia,  six  leagues  to  the  northwest  of  Vallado- 
lid, whither  a  courier  was  now  sent  with  orders  for 
him  to  repair  with  all  speed  to  the  coast.  The  active 
chamberlain  was  in  the  saddle  by  two  in  the  morning 
of  the  2d  of  October,  and  making  the  best  of  his  way, 
on  his  own  horses,  to  Burgos,  he  there  took  post,  and 
accomplished  the  entire  distance  (fifty-six  leagues,  or 
about  two  hundred  and  ten  English  miles)  in  three 
days,  dismounting  on  the  night  of  the  4th  at  Laredo. 
The  presence  of  the  stout  old  soldier  was  much 
wanted.  Half  of  the  emperor's  people  were  ill ;  Mon- 
sieur Lachaulx  and  Monsieur  d'Aubremont  had  ter- 


knelt  down  and  kissed  the  earth,  ejaculating,  "  I  salute  thee,  O  common 
mother !  Naked  came  I  forth  from  the  womh  to  receive  the  treasures  of 
the  earth,  and  naked  am  I  about  to  return  to  the  bosom  of  the  universal 
mother."  Had  the  emperor  really  done  or  spoken  so,  it  is  most  unlikely 
that  his  secretary  would  have  failed  to  mention  it  in  his  letters,  —  none  of 
which  contain  any  hint  that  can  justify  the  tale. 


10  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

tian  and  quartan  fevers  ;  seven  or  eight  of  the  meaner 
attendants  were  dead ;  yet  there  were  no  doctors  to 
give  any  assistance.  There  was  even  a  difficulty  in 
finding  a  priest  to  say  mass,  the  staff  of  physicians 
and  chaplains  which  had  been  ordered  down  from 
Vailadolid  not  having  yet  been  heard  of.  But  for  the 
well-stored  larder  of  the  bishop  of  Salamanca,  there 
would  have  been  short  commons  at  the  royal  table. 
When  the  secretary,  Martin  Gaztelu,  wrote  to  com- 
plain of  these  things,  there  was  no  courier  at  hand  to 
carry  the  letter.  The  weather  was  wet  and  tempes- 
tuous, and  of  a  fleet  of  ships,  laden  with  wool,  which 
the  royal  squadron  had  met  at  sea,  some  had  returned 
dismasted  to  port,  and  others  had  gone  to  the  bot- 
tom.* The  Flemings  were  loud  in  their  discontent, 
and  very  ill-disposed  to  penetrate  any  further  into  a 
country  so  hungry  and  inhospitable.  The  alcalde  who 
was  charged  with  the  preparations  for  the  journey, 
was  at  his  wit's  end,  though  hardly  beyond  the  begin- 
ning of  his  work.  The  emperor  himself  was  ill,  and 
out  of  humor  with  the  badness  of  the  arrangements ; 
but  he  was  cheered  by  the  sight  of  his  trusty  Quixada, 
and  welcomed  him  with  much  kindness. 

From  the  moment  that  the  old  campaigner  took 
the  command,  matters  began  to  wear  a  more  hopeful 
aspect.  The  day  after  his  arrival  was  spent  in  vigor- 
ous preparation ;   and  in  the  morning  of  the  6th  of 

*  The  loss  of  the  vessel  of  Francis  Cachopin,  with  eighty  men,  and  a 
cargo  worth  80,000  ducats,  is  particularly  mentioned  by  Gaztelu,  in  his 
letter  to  Juan  Vazquez  de  Molina,  dated  6th  of  October.  This  storm 
seems  to  be  the  sole  foundation  for  Strada's  story  (Z)e  Bello  BeJgico,  2 
tom.,  sm.  8vo,  Antv.  1640, 1,  p.  10)  that  the  emperor's  ship  went  down 
a  few  hours  after  he  had  quitted  her.  No  trace  of  such  an  accident  is  to 
be  found  in  the  Gonzalez  MS. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  11 

October,  a  messenger  came  from  Valladolid  with  a 
seasonable  supply  of  pro\'isions.  That  morning, 
while  Gaztelu  penned  a  somewhat  desponding  ac- 
count of  the  backwardness  of  things  in  general,  Qui- 
xada  wrote  a  cheerful  announcement  that  they  were 
to  begin  their  march  that  day  at  noon,  after  his 
majesty  had  dined,  —  a  promise  which  he  managed 
to  fulfil. 

The  emperor,  in  spite  of  the  discomforts  of  his  so- 
journ at  Laredo,  is  said  to  have  left  to  the  town  some 
marks  of  his  favor.  The  parish  church  of  the  As- 
sumption of  the  Virgin  —  a  fine  temple  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  grievously  marred  by  the  embellish- 
ments of  the  eighteenth  —  was  happy  in  the  posses- 
sion of  a  holy  image,  Our  Lady  of  the  Magian  kings, 
full  of  miraculous  power,  and  of  benevolence  to  sail- 
ors. Two  lecterns  of  bronze,  in  the  shape  of  eagles 
with  expanded  wings,  and  an  altar-ternary  of  silver, 
which  still  adorn  her  shrine,  are  prized  as  proofs  that 
Charles  the  Fifth  enjoyed  and  valued  her  protection.* 

The  feeble  state  of  the  emperor's  health  required 
that  he  should  travel  by  easy  stages.  His  first  day's 
march,  along  the  rocky  shore  of  the  gulf,  and  up  the 
right  bank  of  the  Ason,  was  hardly  three  leagues. 
The  halting-place  was  Ampuero,  a  village,  hung  on 
the  wooded  side  of  Moncerrago.  Next  day,  about 
four  leagues  were  accomplished,  on  a  road  which  still 
kept  along  the  sylvan  valley  of  the  Ason,  —  a  moun- 
tain stream,  renowned  for  its  salmon,  and  for  the 
grand  cataract  in  which  it  leaps  from  its  source  high 

*  Madoz :  Diccionario  geograjico  estadistico  historico  de  Espana,  17  vols 
roy.  8vo.  Madrid,  1850,  art.  Laredo;  a  work  of  the  greatest  value  and 
importance. 


12  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

up  in  the  sierra.  La  Nestosa,  a  hamlet  in  a  fertile 
hill-embosomed  plain,  was  the  second  day's  bourne. 
The  third  journey,  of  four  leagues,  was  on  the  ridge 
of  Tornos,  to  Aguera,  a  village  buried  among  the 
wildest  mountains  of  the  great  sierra  which  divides 
the  woods  and  pastures  of  Biscay  from  the  brown 
plains  of  Old  Castille.  On  the  fourth  day,  a  march 
of  five  leagues  across  the  southern  spurs  of  the  same 
range,  brought  the  travellers  to  Medina  de  Pomar,  a 
small  town  on  a  rising  ground  in  a  wide  and  wind- 
swept plain.  Here  the  emperor  paused  a  day  to  re- 
pose. 

He  had  performed  the  journey  with  tolerable  ease, 
in  a  horse-litter,  which  he  exchanged,  when  the  road 
was  rugged  or  very  steep,  for  a  chair  carried  by  mei^. 
Two  of  these  chairs,  and  three  litters,  in  case  of  ac- 
cident in  the  wild  highland  march,  formed  his  travel- 
ling equipment.  By  his  side  rode  Luis  Quixada,  or 
Lachaulx  if  the  presence  of  the  chamberlain,  who 
acted  as  marshal  and  quarter-master,  was  required 
elsewhere.  The  rest  of  the  attendants  followed  on 
horseback,  and  the  cavalcade  was  preceded  by  the 
alcalde  Durango  and  five  alguazils,  with  their  wands 
of  office,  —  a  vanguard  which  Quixada  said  made  the 
party  look  like  a  convoy  of  prisoners.  These  algua- 
zils, and  the  general  shabbiness  of  the  regiment  under 
his  command,  were  matters  of  great  concern  to  the 
colonel ;  but  his  remonstrances  met  with  no  sympathy 
from  the  emperor,  who  said  the  tipstaves  did  very  well 
for  him,  and  that  he  did  not  mean  for  the  future  to 
have  any  guards  attached  to  his  household. 

On  the  road,  between  Ampuero  and  La  Nestosa, 
they  met   Don   Enrique  de   Guzman,  coming  from 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  13 

court,  charged  with  a  large  stock  of  provisions  and 
ample  supply  of  conserves.  These  latter  dainties  the 
emperor  immediately  desired  to  taste,  and  finding 
their  quality  good,  he  gave  orders  that  they  were  to 
be  kept  sacred  for  his  peculiar  eating.  Guzman  was 
accompanied  by  Don  Pedro  Pimentel,  gentleman  of 
the  chamber  to  the  young  prince,  Don  Carlos,  bear- 
ing letters  of  compliment  from  his  master,  who  de- 
sired that  the  emperor  would  indicate  to  his  ambassa- 
dor, as  he  called  Pimentel,  the  place  on  the  road 
where  he  was  to  meet  him.  Without  settling  this 
point,  Quixada  wrote,  by  the  emperor's  orders,  to 
court,  desiring  that  a  regular  supply  of  melons  should 
be  sent  for  the  imperial  table,  and  that  some  portable 
glass  windows  should  be  got  ready  for  use  on  the 
journey  beyond  Valladolid,  as  the  nights  were  already 
becoming  chill.  He  asked  also  for  the  dimensions  of  the 
apartments  prepared  at  Valladolid  for  the  queens,  that 
he  might  send  forward  fitting  tapestry  for  their  deco- 
ration ;  and  he  begged  that  the  measurements  might 
be  taken  with  great  exactness,  as  their  majesties,  es- 
pecially the  queen  of  Hungary,  could  not  bear  the 
slightest  mistake  in  the  execution  of  their  behests. 
The  royal  dowagers  had  brought  with  them  from 
Flanders  a  profusion  of  fine  tapestry  of  all  kinds, 
much  of  which  still  adorns  the  walls  of  the  Spanish 
palaces.  They  did  not  travel  in  company  with  their 
brother,  but  kept  one  day's  march  in  the  rear,  as  it 
would  have  been  difficult  to  lodge  their  combined  fol- 
lowers. The  management  of  their  journey,  and  the 
selection  of  their  quarters,  rested  with  the  all-provident 
QuLxada;  who  had  found  time  to  make  general  ar- 


14 


THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


rangements  on  these  heads  as  he  galloped  down  the 
road  from  Villagarcia. 

During  the  day  of  rest  at  Medina,  the  imperial 
quarters  were  thronged  with  noble  and  civic  visitors, 
who  rode  into  town  from  all  points  of  the  compass. 
Addresses  came  from  the  corporations  of  Burgos,  Sal- 
amanca, Palencia,  Pamplona,  and  other  cities ;  from 
the  archbishop  of  Toledo,  and  other  prelates.  On 
the  11th  of  October,  Charles  again  mounted  his  litter, 
and  travelled  five  leagues  to  Pesadas,  a  poor  town,  on 
a  bleak  table-land,  swept  by  the  merciless  north  wind, 
where  he  was  met  by  the  constable  of  Navarre.  Af- 
ter a  brief  audience,  he  dismissed  that  nobleman,  with 
a  request  that  he  would  go  forward  and  welcome  the 
two  queens.  The  night  of  the  12th  of  October  was 
passed,  after  a  five  leagues'  march,  at  Gondomin  ; 
and  the  next  day,  a  journey  of  about  the  same  length, 
still  over  vast  undulating  heaths,  rough  with  thickets 
of  dwarf  oak,  led  to  the  domains  of  the  Cid,  beyond 
which  rose  the  ancient  gate  and  beautiful  twin  spires 
of  Burgos. 

Two  leagues  from  the  city,  the  emperor  was  met 
by  the  constable  of  Castille,  Don  Pedro  Fernandez 
de  Velasco,  and  a  gallant  company  of  loyal  gentle- 
men. The  constable,  whom  age  and  infirmities  had 
compelled  to  exchange,  like  his  lord,  the  saddle  for 
the  litter,  conducted  him  with  all  honor  to  the  noble 
palace  of  the  Velascos,  popularly  known  as  the  Casa 
del  Cordon,  from  the  massive  cord  of  St.  Francis, 
which  enfolds  and  protects  the  great  portal.  He  of- 
fered hospitality  to  the  whole  of  the  imperial  train,  but 
this  Luis  Quixada  was  instructed  to  decline.  While 
the  emperor  made  his  entry  into  the  city,  the  bells  of 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  15 

the  cathedral  rang  a  peal  of  welcome ;  and  at  night, 
the  chapter  made  a  still  finer  display  of  loyalty,  in  a 
grand  illumination  of  its  steeples.  For  once,  sombre 
Burgos,  which  was  said  to  wear  mourning  for  all 
Castille,*  seems  to  have  laid  aside  its  weeds. 

The  privations,  spiritual  and  temporal,  endured  by 
Charles  at  Laredo,  and  arising,  as  it  appears,  from 
miscalculation  of  time,  are  the  sole  evidence  furnished 
by  his  servants  of  that  neglect  which  even  Spanish 
historians  have  long  been  in  the  habit  of  depicting,  as 
if  to  deter  princes  from  the  dangerous  experiment  of 
abdication.  Had  the  emperor  really  been  exposed  to 
this  mortification,  perhaps  his  pride  would  have  led 
him  to  suffer  in  silence.  But  then* his  hundred  and 
fifty  followers,  newly  come  from  the  flesh-pots  of 
Flanders,  must  have  starved ;  and  they  at  least  would 
have  cried  aloud,  and  spared  not.  So  far  from  the 
imperial  traveller  being  allowed  to  pass  through  his 
ancient  kingdom  unnoticed,  his  stay  of  two  days 
at  Burgos  seems  to  have  been  a  perpetual  levee. 
Amongst  those  who  came  to  pay  their  homage  were 
the  admiral  of  Castille,  the  dukes  of  Medina-Celi, 
Medina-Sidonia,  Maqueda,  Najera,  Infantado,  and 
many  other  grandees.  The  royal  councils  of  state, 
the  royal  chancery  of  Valladolid,  and  other  pub- 
lic bodies,  sent  deputations  with  loyal  addresses. 
Amongst  the  lesser  nobles  who  came  in  crowds  to 
the  Casa  del  Cordon,  not  the  least  noticeable  was 
Don  Gutierre  de  Padilla,  brother  of  the  gallant  Juan 
de  Padilla,  with  whom,  thirty-five  years  before,  the 


*  And.  Navagiero :  H  Viaijglo  fatto  in  Spagna^  sm.  8vo,  Vinegia,  1563, 
fol.  35. 


16  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

constitutional  liberties  of  Castille  had  perished  in  the 
disastrous  wars  of  the  Commons.  For  fighting  on  the 
winning  side  in  that  horoic  struggle,  Gutierre  had 
been  rewarded  with  a  commandery,  and  at  this  time 
he  held  the  honorary  post  of  gentleman  of  the  imperial 
chamber. 

Brom  Burgos  the  emperor  set  out  for  Valladolid 
on  the  16th  of  October.  In  spite  of  his  infirmities, 
the  constable  offered  to  accompany  him  part  of  the 
first  day's  journeys;  an  offer  which,  however,  his  guest 
would  not  accept.  But  to  the  great  contentment  of 
Quixada,  Don  Francisco  de  Beaumont  insisted  on 
joining  the  cavalcade  with  an  escort  of  cavalry,  thus 
superseding  the  alcalde  and  his  alguazils.  Their  road 
lay  along  the  rich  vale  and  near  the  right  bank  of  the 
Arlanzon,  a  river  sometimes  rolling  its  muddy  waters 
in  a  deep  and  rapid  stream,  sometimes  expanding 
them  into  broad  shallows.  The  first  resting-place 
was  about  four  leagues  from  Burgos,  at  the  village 
of  Celada ;  the  second,  seven  leagues  farther,  at  Palen- 
zuela,  where  the  emperor  was  pleased  to  find  a  sup- 
ply of  flounders,  newly  arrived  from  court.  Fish  was 
his  favorite  food,  yet  it  never  agreed  with  him ;  so 
these  flounders  were  probably  the  cause  of  the  indis- 
position of  which  he  complained  at  "Torquemada, 
where,  after  a  journey  of  four  leagues,  he  passed  the 
night.  In  this  town  of  vine-dressers,  seated  amongst 
productive  gardens  and  orchards,  near  the  confluence 
of  the  Arlanzon,  the  Arlanza,  and  the  Pisuerga,  he 
was  met  by  the  bishop  of  the  neighboring  city  of  Pa- 
lencia.  This  prelate  was  a  man  of  some  distinction ; 
his  skilful  diplomacy  in  repressing  a  formidable  rebel- 
lion  had  saved  Peru  to   Castille ;   and  he  had  very 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  17 

lately  received  from  the  emperor  his  present  mitre,  as 
the  reward  of  his  services.*  He  now  waited  on  his 
benefactor  with  a  magnificent  supply  of  meat,  game, 
and  fruit,  sufficient  to  feast  the  whole  of  his  train. 

The  next  night  the  emperor  was  lodged  three 
leagues  farther  on,  at  Dueiias,  where  Ferdinand  of 
Aragon  first  met  Isabella  the  Catholic,  and  where  the 
count  of  Buendia  now  received  their  descendant  in 
his  feudal  castle  on  the  adjacent  height,  overlooking 
the  broad  valley  of  the  Pisuerga.  Some  gentlemen 
from  Valladolid  meeting  him  here,  advised  him  to 
enter  the  capital  by  way  of  Cigales,  and  the  Puente- 
mayor,  by  which  means  he  would  at  once  reach  the 
palace,  without  noise  and  without  a  crowd.  "  No," 
said  he ;  "I  will  go  the  usual  way,  by  the  gate  of  San 
Pedro  ;  for  it  would  be  a  shame  not  to  let  my  people 
see  me."  f  The  fifth  day,  his  journey  was  again  a 
short  one,  of  three  leagues ;  and  the  halting-place  was 
Cabezon,  a  village  within  two  leagues  of  the  capital, 
and  boasting  of  a  fine  bridge  over  the  Pisuerga. 
Here  the  infant  Don  Carlos  was  in  waiting,  by  his 
grandfather's  directions.  It  was  the  first  time  that  the 
emperor  had  seen  the  unhappy  heir  of  his  name  and 
his  honors.  He  embraced  him  with  much  appear- 
ance of  affection,  and  made  him  sup  at  his  table. 
During  the  meal,  the  prince  took  a  fancy  to  a  little 
portable  chafing-dish,  which  the  emperor  carried  in  his 
hand  for  warmth,  and  begged  to  have  it  for  his  own  ; 
to  which  the  proprietor  replied,  that  he  should  have 

*  F.  Fernandez  de  Palgar :  Historia  de  Palencia,  4  vols,  fol.,  Madrid, 
1679,  III.  p.  201. 

t  "  Ruindad  no  dejarse  ver  por  los  suyos,"  are  the  words  in  the  origi- 
nal letter  of  the  reporter,  Gaztelu  or  Quixada. 


18 


THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


it  as  soon  as  he  was  dead,  and  had  no  further  use 
for  it. 

Early  next  day,  the  21st  of  October,  Juan  Vazquez 
de  Molina,  secretary  of  state,  came  to  Cabezon,  and 
had  a  long  conference  with  the  emperor,  of  whom  he 
had  been  an  old  and  approved  servant.  He  found 
him  in  good  health  and  spirits,  not  at  all  fatigued 
with  his  journey,  and  in  all  respects  better  than  his 
attendants  had  known  him  for  several  years.  Charles 
would  not,  however,  accept  the  honors  of  a  public 
reception,  which  it  had  been  proposed  to  give 
him  at  Valladolid ;  but  desired  that  the  pomps  pre- 
pared for  the  occasion  might  be  reserved  until  the 
arrival  of  the  queens,  who  were  also  on  the  road. 
Accordingly  he  made  his  entry  that  same  afternoon, 
without  parade  of  any  kind,  and  was  received  in  the 
court  of  the  palace  by  his  grandson,  Don  Carlos,  and 
by  his  daughter,  the  princess-regent* 


*  The  emperor's  itinerary  from  Laredo  to  Valladolid  was  as  follows ; 
the- distances  being  computed  as  far  as  possible  by  the  fine  maps  of  Col. 


Don  Francisco  Coello,  now  in  course  of  publication  a 
October  6,  Monday,  Laredo  to  Ampuero, 


7,  Tuesday, 

8,  Wednesday, 

9,  Thursday,    . 

11,  Saturday, 

12,  Sunday, 

13,  Monday,  . 

16,  Thursday,   . 

17,  Friday,     . 

18,  Saturday,    . 

19,  Sunday,    . 

20,  Monday, 

21,  Tuesday,. 


La  Nestosa, 

Aguera, 

Medina  de  Pomar 

Pesadas, 

Gondoniin, 

Burgos, 

Celada, 

Palenzuela,  . 

Torquemada, 

Duenas, 

Cabezon,  . 

Valladolid,   . 


Madrid : 

Leagued. 

.     3 

4 

.     4 

5 


In  all  about  Cii  leagues. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  19 

Valladolid  was  at  this  time  at  the  height  of  its 
prosperity,  as  the  wealthy  and  flourishing  capital  of 
the  Spanish  monarchy.  It  possessed  a  noble  palace 
standing  in  delicious  gardens ;  a  splendid  college 
erected  by  cardinal  Mendoza  and  built  all  of  white 
marble  in  the  florid  Gothic  of  Ferdinand  and  Isa- 
bella ;  and  some  religious  houses,  such  as  San  Benito 
and  San  Pablo,  unexcelled  as  examples  of  the  rich 
and  fantastic  transition  style  of  architecture.  Other 
churches  and  convents,  and  many  mansions  of  the 
great  nobles,  adorned  the  streets  and  squares,  spread 
their  long  fronts  to  the  great  parade-ground  known 
as  the  Campo  Grande,  or  rose  amongst  the  gardens 
which  fringed  the  Pisuerga. 

The  princess-regent  Juana  was  the  second  daugh- 
ter of  the  emperor,  and  widow  of  Juan,  prince  of  Bra- 
zil, heir  apparent  of  the  Portuguese  crown.  Her  mar- 
ried life  had  been  no  less  brief  than  bright;  the  prince, 
who  loved  her  tenderly,  dying  in  less  than  thirteen 
months  after  their  union.  Juan  was  the  only  son,  not 
only  of  his  parents,  but  of  the  decaying  house  of 
Avis ;  and  therefore  on  his  pregnant  widow  of  nine- 
teen were  centred  all  the  hopes  of  the  Portuguese 
nation.  In  spite,  however,  of  the  prayers  which 
rose  in  every  church,  and  the  processions  which  glit- 
tered through  every  town  between  the  Minho  and 
Cape  St.  Vincent,  alarming  portents  preceded  the 
royal  birth.  A  woman,  clad  in  black,  was  seen  to 
stand  by  the  bed  of  Juana,  snapping  her  fingers,  and 
blowing  into  the  air,  as  if  in  prediction  of  the  futility 
of  the  national  hope  ;  and  Moorish  figures,  with  torch- 
es in  their  hands,  rushed  at  night  by  the  palace  win- 
dows, in  full  view  of  the  princess  and  her  ladies,  rid- 


20  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

ing  on  the  wintry  blast,  and  uttering  doleful  cries  as 
they  descended  into  the  sea.  But  in  the  night  of  the 
loth  of  January,  1554,  a  shout  of  joy  rung  through 
the  broad  square  between  the  palace  and  the  Tagus, 
when  it  was  announced  to  the  expectant  crowds  that 
the  prince  was  born  whose  romantic  fate  has  made 
the  name  of  Sebastian  so  famous  in  song  and  story. 
From  the  pangs  of  travail,  the  young  mother,  who 
had  been  kept  ignorant  of  her  husband's  death, 
passed  to  the  sorrows  of  widowhood ;  she  wept  for 
the  father  of  her  child  as  Rachel  for  her  children,  and 
would  not  be  comforted ;  and  but  for  the  king,  who 
forbade  the  cutting  off  her  fine  auburn  hair,  she 
would  have  retired  with  her  grief  to  a  nunnery.* 
Having  repaid  to  the  house  of  Avis  the  debt  incurred 
by  the  house  of  Austria  at  the  birth  of  Don  Carlos, 
she  was  soon  recalled  to  Spain,  to  govern  that  coun- 
try, as  regent,  first  for  her  father  the  emperor,  and  now 
for  her  brother,  Philip  the  Second.  This  high  post 
she  filled  with  firmness  and  moderation,  displaying 
no  want  of  sagacity,  except  in  her  policy  towards  the 
enthusiasts  for  religious  reform,  whom  she  treated 
with  the  foolish  severity  practised  by  many  of  the 
mildest  and  wisest  rulers  of  the  time.  Her  policy  was 
ever  directed  by  that  strong  family  feeling  which  the 
princes  of  the  nineteenth  century  have  learned  to  call 
by  the  more  decorous  name  of  public  spirit.  Of  per- 
sonal ambition  she  appears  to  have  been  entirely  free. 
For  many  months  before  her  brother  returned  to 
Spain,  she  was  constantly  urging  him  to  come  back 
and  ease  her  of  the  burden  of  power.     To  her  father 


*  M.  de  Menescs:   Chwnica  de  D.  Sebastiao,  fol.,  Lisboa,  1730,  pp. 
27-30. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  21 

her  deference  was  ever  most  readily  and  affectionately 
paid.  Devotion  was  the  ruling  passion  of  her  wid- 
owed life ;  her  recreation  during  her  regency  was  to 
retire,  for  prayer  and  scourging,  to  the  convent  which 
the  Franciscans  called  their  Scala  Cceli,  amongst  the 
gloomy  rocks  and  tall  pines  of  Abrojo.  She  encour- 
aged her  ladies  to  become  nuns,  but  dissuaded  them 
from  becoming  wives  ;  and  she  would  never  give  audi- 
ence to  foreign  ambassadors  but  covered  from  head  to 
foot  with  a  veil,  drawing  it  aside  for  a  moment  only 
when  some  envoy,  more  curious  than  his  fellows,  de- 
sired permission  to  identify  her  pale  and  melancholy 
face. 

While  at  Valladolid,  the  emperor  and  his  suite  were 
lodged  in  the  house  of  Don  Gomez  Perez  de  las  Ma- 
rinas. Another  residence  was  assigned  to  the  queens, 
who  arrived  on  the  22d  of  October,  the  day  after  their 
brother.  The  grandees,  the  dignitaries  of  the  church 
and  the  law,  the  council  of  state  in  their  robes  of  cere- 
mony, and  the  college  doctors  in  their  scarlet  hoods, 
met  them  in  grand  procession,  and  conducted  them 
into  the  city  in  triumph.  They  were  charmed  with 
their  reception ;  Quixada  and  his  people  had  made 
no  mistake  about  the  tapestries ;  and  queen  Mary,  at 
the  banquet  in  the  evening,  remarked  that  every  day 
she  found  new  cause  to  rejoice  that  she  had  come  to 
Spain.  The  banquet  was  followed  by  a  ball,  at  which 
the  emperor  also  was  present.  The  admiral  of  Cas- 
tille,  the  duke  of  Sesa,  heir  of  the  great  captain,  the 
count  of  Benevente,  and  the  marquis  of  Astorga,  were 
amongst  the  chief  nobles  who  came  to  do  homage  to 
their  ancient  lord,  whose  hand  was  also  kissed  by  the 
members  of  the  council  of  Castille.     It  was  probably 


22 


THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


at  this  ball  that  Charles  caused  the  wives  of  all  his 
personal  attendants  to  be  assembled  around  him,  and 
bade  each  in  particular  farewell.  Perico  de  Sant  Er- 
bas,  a  famous  jester  of  the  court,  passing  by  at  the 
moment,  the  emperor  good-humoredly  saluted  him  by 
lifting  his  hat.  This  buffoon  had  formerly  been  wont 
to  make  the  emperor  laugh  by  calling  his  son  Philip 
Senor  de  Todo,  lord  of  All,*  and  now  that  he  was  so, 
this  opportunity  of  reviving  the  old  joke  was  too  good 
to  be  lost  by  the  bitter  fool.  "  What  I  do  you  uncover 
to  me  ?  "  said  the  jester ;  "  does  it  mean  that  you  are 
no  longer  an  emperor?"  "No,  Pedro,"  replied  the 
object  of  the  jest ;  "  but  it  means  that  I  have  nothing 
to  give  you  beyond  this  courtesy."  f 

On  the  27th  of  October,  Don  Constantino  de  Bra- 
ganza  arrived  from  Lisbon  to  congratulate  the  emper- 
or, in  the  name  of  his  cousin,  John  the  Third,  and  his 
sister  Catherine,  king  and  queen  of  Portugal,  on  his 
safe  return  to  Spain.  Charles  received  him  with  that 
perfect  graciousness  with  which  he  knew  well  how  to 
meet  the  advances  of  a  rival  who  had  just  cause  for 
dissatisfaction.  For  the  courts  of  Lisbon  and  Valla- 
dolid,  though  friendly  in  appearance,  were  really  upon 
terms  far  from  cordial.  Not  only  had  Philip  the  Sec- 
ond broken  his  faith  to  an  infanta  of  Portugal,  but  his 
father  had  aided  him  in  foiling  the  designs  of  a  Por- 
tuguese infant  upon  the  crown  matrimonial  of  Eng- 
land. For  that  splendid  prize  the  gallant  Don  Luis 
of  Portugal  had  been  one  of  the  earliest  candidates. 
Knowing  that  the  prince  of  Spain  was  already  be- 

*  Bradford's  Correspondence  of  Cliarles  V.    Relatione  di  Navagiero,  p. 
439. 
t  J.  A.  de  Vera :  Vida  dd  Emp.  Carlos  F.,  4to,  Bruxellefi,  1656,  p.  245. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  23 

trothed  to  his  half-sister,  and  being  himself  a  brother- 
in-law,  as  well  as  a  brother  in  arms,  of  his  sire,  he  at 
once  confided  his  plan  to  the  emperor,  and  asked  for 
his  aid  in  its  execution.  Charles  received  his  confi- 
dence graciously,  and  affected  to  favor  his  pretensions, 
until  Philip  had  made  his  election  sure.  Don  Luis 
was  lately  dead,  leaving  a  bastard  son,  who,  as  prior 
of  Crato,  afterwards  became  famous  for  a  time  as 
Philip's  most  formidable  rival  for  the  crown  of  Portu- 
gal. But  the  afTront  which  the  house  of  Avis  had  re- 
ceived in  the  persons  of  Don  Luis  and  the  infanta,  was 
still  too  recent  to  be  forgotten,  and  may  have  been 
partly  the  cause  why  the  princess  Juana  so  soon  for- 
sook her  baby  son,  and  the  kingdom  which  was  his 
heritage.  The  national  enmities  w^hich  burned  on 
the  opposite  shores  of  the  Guadiana  were  not  extinct 
in  royal  bosoms  at  Lisbon  and  Valladolid  ;  France 
was  careful  to  fan  the  useful  flame  ;  and  it  was  sus- 
pected that  the  moidores  of  Brazil  were  not  unknown 
to  the  troops  which  were  now  planting  the  lilied  ban- 
ner on  fortress  after  fortress  along  the  ever-fluctuating 
frontier  of  French  and  Austrian  Flanders. 

During  his  stay  at  Valladolid,  the  emperor  every 
day  held  long  conferences  on  public  affairs  with  the 
princess-regent  and  the  secretary  Vazquez.  He  could 
not  approach  the  machine  of  government  which  he 
had  so  long  directed  without  examining  with  lively 
interest  its  condition  and  its  movements.  He  was 
anxious  now  to  give  its  present  guides  the  benefit 
of  his  parting  advice,  —  advice  which,  as  the  event 
proved,  he  continued  to  transmit  from  Yuste  by  every 
post,  and  which  was  ended  only  with  his  powers  of 
hearing  and  dictating  despatches.     But  that  he  now 


24  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

intended  to  abstain  from  further  interference  with 
business  of  state  is  plain,  from  a  letter  which  he  wrote 
to  Philip  the  Second  on  the  30th  of  October. 

This  letter  relates  chiefly  to  certain  overtures  which 
had  been  made  to  the  emperor  by  Anthony  de  Bour- 
bon, whom  he  called  duke  of  Vendorne,  but  who  was 
known  in  France  by  the  title  of  king  of  Navarre. 
Since  Ferdinand  the  Catholic  had  driven  John  the 
Third  across  the  Pyrenees,  the  dominions  of  the  house 
of  D'Albret  hardly  extended  beyond  the  horizon  of  its 
fair  castle  of  Pau.  The  chains  in  which  Castille  held 
Navarre  were  stronger  than  those  through  which  Don 
Sancho  clove  his  way  at  Navas  de  Tolosa,  and  which 
his  exiled  descendants  still  emblazoned  in  gold  on 
their  blood-red  shield.  Yet  the  late  king  Henry,  hus- 
band of  the  story-loving  pearl  of  Margarets,  had  willed 
himself  a  provisional  tomb,  until  fortune  should  per- 
mit him  to  be  laid  in  the  cathedral  of  Pamplona. 
His  son-in-law,  the  chief  of  the  Bourbons,  was,  how- 
ever, neither  very  solicitous  nor  very  hopeful  of  dis- 
turbing Henry's  repose  at  Lescar.  To  the  courage, 
courtesy,  and  good  humor  which  seldom  desert  a 
Bourbon  in  high  or  low  estate,  the  first  king  of  the 
name  added,  in  full  measure,  that  laxity  of  principle 
and  instability  of  purpose  which  seem  to  belong  to 
the  blood.  Protestant  and  Catholic,  Huguenot  and 
Leaguer  by  turns,  he  anticipated  in  his  career  all  that 
tarnished,  little  that  ennobled,  the  name  of  his  son 
Henry  the  Fourth ;  and  he  died  detested  by  the  party 
which  he  had  forsaken,  and  described,  by  the  party  to 
which  he  had  attached  himself,  as  a  man  without 
heart  and  without  gall.  As  governor  of  ,Picardy,  he 
had  lately  commanded  against  the  imperial  troops  in 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  25 

Flanders;  but  he  had  now  joined  his  strong-minded 
wife,  Jane  d'Albret,  in  her  principality  of  Bearne. 
Menaced  even  in  that  modest  domain  by  the  all-pow- 
erful Guises,  who  recommended  its  annexation  to  the 
realm  of  France,  they  were  desirous  of  securing  the 
protection  of  their  other  great  neighbor  beyond  the 
Pyrenees.  Anthony  had  therefore  proposed  to  cede 
to  the  king  of  Spain,  for  a  suitable  consideration,  all 
his  wife's  rights  to  coronation  or  to  interment  at 
Pamplona. 

Writing  to  Philip  the  Second,  the  emperor  informed 
him  that  this  matter  had  been  brought  under  his  no- 
tice at  Burgos,  by  the  duke  of  Albuquerque,  viceroy 
of  Navarre,  and  that  he  had  given  audience  to  Mon- 
sieur Ezcurra,  the  confidential  agent  of  the  duke  of 
Vendome.  The  subject  had  also  been  discussed  at 
Valladolid.  He  had  refused,  however,  to  enter  upon 
the  affair,  and  left  it  entirely  in  the  king's  hands.  He 
hoped  that  the  prince  of  Orange  and  the  chancellor 
had  come  to  a  settlement  with  the  king  of  the  Ro- 
mans, as  to  the  last  formalities  of  his  renunciation  of 
the  empire  ;  and  he  entreated  Philip  to  hasten  the  set- 
tlement by  all  the  means  in  his  power,  being  anxious 
to  enter  his  monastery  "  free  from  this,  as  from  other 
cares." 

While  Charles  was  thus  bent  on  conventual  quiet, 
he  was  so  reserved  in  his  communications  with  his 
attendants,  that  they  were  still  in  doubt  whether  he 
really  intended  to  shut  himself  up  for  life  in  the  dis- 
tant cloister  of  Yuste.  From  Burgos  Gaztelu  wrote, 
that,  in  spite  of  his  constant  opportunities,  he  was  un- 
able to  penetrate  the  emperor's  intentions,  —  the  ex- 
pressions which  he  let  fall  being  always,  as  it  seemed, 
3 


26 


THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


purposely  equivocal.  At  Valladolid,  however,  he  had 
commanded  the  attendance  of  the  prior  of  Yuste,  and 
the  general  of  the  order  of  Jerome,  Fray  Francisco  de 
Tofino ;  and  he  gave  audience  so  frequently  to  these 
friars,  that  the  Flemings  must  have  begun  to  despair 
of  escaping  the  backwoods  of  Estremadura. 

The  acquaintance  of  the  emperor  and  his  grand- 
son, Don  Carlos,  which  commenced  at  Cabezon,  was 
of  course  improved  at  Valladolid.  On  the  grand- 
father's side,  there  seems  to  have  been  little  of  the 
fondness  which  usually  belongs  to  the  relationship. 
Although  only  eleven  years  old,  Carlos  had  already 
shown  symptoms  of  the  mental  malady  which  dark- 
ened the  long  life  of  queen  Juana,  his  great-grand- 
mother by  the  side  both  of  his  father,  Philip  of  Spain, 
and  of  his  mother,  Mary  of  Portugal.  Of  a  sullen 
and  passionate  temper,  he  lived  in  a  state  of  perpet- 
ual rebellion  against  his  aunt,  and  displayed  in  the 
nursery  the  weakly,  mischievous  spirit  which  marked 
his  short  career  at  his  father's  court.  His  sad  and 
early  death,  still  mysterious  both  in  its  cause  and  its 
circumstances,  has  made  him  the  darling  of  romance; 
and  in  that  fairy  realm,  he  goes  crowned  with  im- 
mortal garlands,  such  as  certainly  have  never  been 
won  in  the  battle-fields  of  life  by  any  son  or  descend- 
ant of  his  feire.  He  might  possibly  have  become  the 
champion  of  the  people's  rights,  and  of  liberty  of  con- 
science ;  but  it  was  scarcely  probable  that  a  herb  of 
that  order  should  be  born  in  the  purple  of  the  house 
of  Hapsburg.  His  shadowy  claims  to  the  title  have 
been  maintained  by  several  Schiller-struck  champions.* 

*  Of  these  one  of  the  latest  and  most  plausible  in  his  view  is  Doa 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  27 

But  his  high  faculties  for  good  or  evil,  if  he  possessed 
them,  certainly  escaped  the  shrewd  insight  of  his 
grandfather,  who  regarded  him  merely  as  a  froward 
and  untractable  child,  whose  future  interests  would 
be  best  served  by  a  present  unsparing  use  of  the  rod. 
Recommending,  therefore,  to  the  princess  an  increased 
severity  of  discipline  in  the  management  of  her 
nephew,  the  emperor  remarked  to  his  sisters  that  he 
had  observed  with  concern  the  boy's  unpromising 
conduct  and  manners,  and  that  it  was  very  doubtful 
how  the  man  would  grow  up.  This  opinion  was 
conveyed  by  queen  Eleanor  to  Philip  the  Second,  who 
had  requested  his  aunt  to  note  carefully  the  impres- 
sion made  by  his  son ;  and  it  is  said  to  have  laid  the 
foundation  for  the  aversion  which  the  king  entertained 
towards  Carlos. 

Adolfo  de  Castro.  See  his  agreeable  work,  Uistoria  de  los  Protestantes 
Espanoles,  8vo,  Cadiz,  1851,  pp.  243-319,  or  T7ie  Spanish  Protestants, 
translated  by  T.  Parker,  fcap.  8vo,  London,  1851,  pp.  278-339,  ia 
which,  however,  I  cannot  admit  that  he  makes  out  his  case. 


28  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE    CASTLE    OF    XARANDILLA. 

Since  the  emperor  had  turned  fifty  and  had  begun 
to  lose  his  teeth,  he  had  ceased  to  eat  in  public,  or  at 
least  performed  that  royal  function  in  private  as  often 
as  good  policy  permitted.  On  the  4th  of  November 
he  exhibited  himself  at  table  to  his  subjects  for  the 
last  time,  dining  about  noon  before  as  many  of  the 
citizens  of  Valladolid  as  chose  to  attend  and  could 
find  standing  room  in  the  apartment.  Immediately 
afterwards  he  bade  farewell  to  the  princess-regent  and 
her  nephew,  and  set  forward  on  his  journey  to  Es- 
tremadura,  dismissing,  at  the  Campo  gate,  a  crowd 
of  grandees  who  had  wished  to  ride  for  some  miles 
beside  his  litter. 

The  following  which  he  had  brought  from  Burgos 
continued  to  attend  him,  with  a  small  escort  of  horse 
and  a  company  of  forty  halberdiers  commanded  by 
a  lieutenant.  They  had  not  gone  far  over  the  naked 
plain,  patched  here  and  there  with  stubby  vineyards, 
when  the  emperor  complained  of  illness,  and  halted 
his  litter.  His  servants  retired  with  him  into  a  way- 
side garden,  and  by  the  application  of  hot  cushions  to 
his  stomach  he  was  soon  sufficiently  restored  to  pro- 
ceed. At  the  ferry  of  the  broad  Duero  he  looked  to- 
wards the  fortress  of  Simancas,  which  rose  on  its 
round  hill-top  out  of  the  plain  a  few  miles  higher  up 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  29 

the  river,  and  remarked  to  Quixada  that  he  hoped  the 
thirty  thousand  ducats,  with  which  he  counted  upon 
paying  his  people,  had  been  lodged  there  in  safety. 
The  day's  march  of  four  leagues  closed  at  Val- 
destillas,  a  village  seated  amongst  low  woods  of 
melancholy  pine. 

The  next  day's  journey,  w^hich  was  somewhat  short- 
er, brought  the  party  to  Medina  del  Campo,  a  fine 
old  historical  town  in  a  singularly  bad  site,  with  a 
grand  collegiate  church  presiding  over  many  other  re- 
ligious buildings,  and  a  noble  hospital,  well  suppllfed 
with  patients  by  the  miasma  which  rose  from  the 
stagnating  Zapardiel  that  crept  beneath  the  walls. 
Here  was  an  ancient  residence  of  the  crown  of  Cas- 
tille,  called  La  Mota,  a  stately  pile  hallowed  by  the 
death-bed  of  Isabella  the  Catholic.  The  emperor, 
however,  was  not  lodged  there,  but  in  the  house  of 
one  Rodrigo  de  Duefias,  a  rich  money-broker,  whither 
he  was  conducted  by  the  authorities  and  by  most  of  the 
inhabitants,  who  had  met  him  at  the  gate.  His  host, 
imitating,  perhaps  unconsciously,  the  splendid  Fug- 
gers  of  Augsburg,  had  provided,  amongst  other  luxu- 
ries for  the  emperor's  use,  a  chafing-dish  of  gold,  filled, 
not  with  the  usual  charred  vine-tendrils,  but  with  the 
finest  cinnamon  of  Ceylon.  Charles  was  so  displeased 
with  this  piece  of  ostentation,  that  he  refused,  very 
uncourteously  and  unreasonably  as  it  seems,  to  allow 
the  poor  capitalist  to  kiss  his  hand,  and  on  going 
away,  next  day,  ordered  his  night's  lodging  to  be  paid 
for.*     From  Medina  he  privately  sent  one  of  his  chap- 


"  This  story  is  told  by  Gonzalez ;  but  whether  on  the  authority  of  a 
letter  does  not  appear. 

3» 


80  THE    CLOISTER   LIFE    OF 

lains  to  Tordesillas  to  observe  the  state  and  service  of 
the  chapel  which  he  had  endowed  there  for  the  benefit 
of  the  souls  of  his  parents. 

In  the  course  of  the  third  day's  march  he  remarked 
to  his  attendants  that,  thank  God !  they  were  now 
getting  beyond  the  reach  of  state  and  ceremony,  and 
that  there  would  be  now  no  more  visits  to  make  or  re- 
ceive, or  receptions  to  undergo.  Six  or  seven  leagues, 
still  over  vast  bare,  undulating  plains,  where  the  plough 
feebly  contended  with  the  waste,  brought  them  to 
Hm'cajo  de  los  Torres,  a  lone  village,  built  on  a  wind- 
swept table-land.  The  fourth  day  was  marked  by  an 
improvement  in  the  weather,  which  had  hitherto  been 
rainy,  and  by  the  arrival  of  a  courier  from  court  with 
a  supply  of  potted  anchovies  and  other  favorite  fish 
for  the  emperor.  He  also  was  presented  with  an  of- 
fering of  eels,  trouts,  and  barbel,  by  the  townspeople 
of  Penaranda,  where  he  rested  for  the  night  in  the 
mansion  of  the  Bracamontes.  The  road  now  ap- 
proached the  southern  hills  and  entered  the  straggling 
woods  of  evergreen  oak  which  clothe  the  base,  and  be- 
come dense  on  the  lower  slopes,  of  the  wild  sierra  of 
Bejar,  the  centre  of  that  mountain  chain  which  forms 
the  backbone  of  the  Peninsula,  stretching  from  Mon- 
cayo  in  Aragon  to  the  rock  of  Lisbon  on  the  Atlantic. 

In  the  fifth  day's  march  the  emperor  began  to  feel 
the  keenness  of  the  mountain  air;  the  little  chafing- 
dish  was  constantly  in  his  hand  ;  and  the  previous 
night  having  been  chilly,  he  sent  for^vard  a  messenger 
to  superintend  the  warming  of  his  room  at  Alaraz,  a 
village  sweetly  nestled  in  the  valley  of  the  Gamo. 
Here  he  wrote  to  the  king  on  the  morning  of  the  9th 
of  November;  and  sleeping  that  night  at  Gallegos  de 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  31 

Solmiron,  he  arrived  on  the  10th  at  Barco  de  Avila, 
a  small  walled  town,  finely  placed  in  a  rich  vale,  over- 
hung by  the  lofty  sierras  of  Bejar  and  Credos,  and 
watered  by  the  fresh  stream  of  the  Tormes,  dear  to 
the  angler  and  to  the  lyric  muse  of  Castille.  A  sec- 
ond courier  from  court  here  overtook  the  party,  with 
some  eider-down  cushions  for  the  emperor,  who  was 
much  pleased  with  their  warmth  and  lightness,  and 
said  he  would  have  them  made  into  jackets  and  dress- 
ing-gowns for  his  own  use.  The  eighth  day's  march, 
of  six  or  seven  mountain  leagues,  was  the  hardest 
they  had  yet  encountered.  The  road,  constantly  as- 
cending the  rocky  and  wood-clad  steeps,  was  extreme- 
ly bad ;  and  although  the  country  people  whom  they 
met  aided  in  overcoming  the  difficulties  of  the  way, 
the  calvacade  did  not  reach  the  halting-place  at  Tor- 
navacas  until  after  dark.  The  emperor,  however,  bore 
the  fatigue  with  all  the  spirit  and  something  of  the 
strength  of  his  younger  days  ;  he  was  even  able,  on  his 
arrival,  to  go  out  to  see  some  of  the  villagers  fish  the 
pools  of  the  Xerte  by  torchlight,  and  he  afterwards 
supped  heartily  on  the  fine  trout  taken  in  the  course 
of  this  picturesque  sport. 

He  was  now  within  six  or  seven  leagues  of  Xaran- 
dilla,  the  village  in  the  neighborhood  of  Yuste  where 
he  proposed  to  remain  until  his  conventual  abode  was 
ready.  His  original  intention  had  been  to  go  thither 
by  way  of  Plasencia,  and  ^ence  along  the  Vera,  or 
valley,  in  which  the  village  stood.  But  from  Torna- 
vacas  there  led  to  Xarandilla  a  track  across  the  moun- 
tains, by  which  a  day's  journey  could  be  saved,  and 
Plasencia,  with  its  episcopal  and  municipal  civilities, 
avoided.     This  shorter  "but  far  rougher  road,  the  em- 


32  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

peror  determined  to  face.  He  set  out  on  his  last 
march  in  good  time  in  the  morning  of  the  12th  of  No- 
vember, his  calvacade  being  swelled  by  a  great  band 
of  the  last  night's  fishermen,  and  other  peasants,  who 
carried  planks  and  poles,  relieved  the  bearers  of  the 
chairs,  led  the  mules,  and  pointed  out  the  way.  This 
assistance  was  not  only  useful,  but  necessary,  the  road 
being  as  wild  a  mountain  path  as  mule  ever  traversed. 
Overhung,  for  the  most  part,  with  the  bare  boughs  of 
great  oaks  and  chestnuts,  the  narrow  and  slippery 
track  sometimes  followed,  sometimes  crossed,  torrents 
swollen  with  the  late  rains,  wound  beneath  toppling 
crags,  climbed  the  edge  of  frightful  precipices,  and 
reached  its  culminating  horror  in  the  pass  of  Puerto- 
nuevo,  a  chasm  rugged  and  steep  as  a  broken  stair- 
case, which  cleft  the  topmost  crest  of  the  sierra.  On 
this  airy  height,  the  traveller,  pausing  to  take  breath, 
suddenly  sees  the  fair  Vera  unrolled,  in  all  its  green 
length,  at  his  feet.  Girdled  with  its  mountain  wall, 
this  nine-league  stretch  of  pasture  and  forest,  broken 
here  and  there  with  village  roofs  and  convent  belfries, 
slopes  gently  to  the  west,  where  beautiful  Plasencia, 
crowned  with  cathedral  towers  and  throned  on  a  ter- 
race of  rock,  sits  queenlike  amongst  vineyards  and 
gardens  and  the  silver  windings  of  the  Xerte. 

The  emperor  was  charmed  with  the  aspect  of  his 
promised  land.  "  Is  this  indeed  the  Vera  I  "  said  he, 
gazing  intently  at  the  lanc^cape  at  his  feet.  He  then 
turned  his  eye  to  the  north,  into  the  forest-mantled 
gorge,  between  the  beetling  rocks  of  the  Puertonuevo. 
"  Now,"  he  said,  looking  back,  as  it  were,  through  the 
gates  of  the  world  he  was  leaving,  "  't  is  the  last  pass 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  33 

I  shall  ever  go  through."  Ya  no  pasare  otro puerto* 
During  the  ascent  and  descent,  he  was  carried  in  a 
chair,  the  stout  and  vigilant  Quixada  marching  at  his 
side  with  a  pike  in  his  hand.  They  reached  Xaran- 
dilla  before  sunset,  and  alighted  at  the  castle  of  the 
count  of  Oropesa,  the  great  feudal  lord  of  the  vicinity, 
and  head  of  an  ancient  branch  of  the  Toledos.  The 
Flemings  were  overcome  with  fatigue  and  with  dis- 
gust at  the  obstacles  which  every  step  had  put  be- 
tw^een  themselves  and  home.  But  all  agreed  that  the 
emperor  bore  the  journey  remarkably  well,  and  did 
not  appear  greatly  wearied  at  its  close.  He  chose  a 
bed-room  different  from  that  allotted  to  him  by  his 
host ;  and  requested  that  a  fire-place  might  be  imme- 
diately added  to  the  chamber  which  he  was  afterwards 
to  occupy,  f 

Xarandilla  was,  and  still  is,  the  most  considerable 
village  in  the  Vera  of  Plasencia,  a  city  so  called  by 
its  founder  on  account  of  the  beauty  of  its  site,  and 
its  "  pleasantness  to  saints  and  men."    Walled  to  the 


*  Puerto  has  in  Spanish  the  doable  signification  of  "  gate "   and 
"mountain  pass." 
t  In  this  itinerary,  from  Valladolid  to  Xarandilla,  I  am  without  means 

of  computing  the  distances  with  any  certainty  : 

Leagues. 
November  4,  Tuesday,  Valladolid  to  Valdestillas,  •        .        4 

5,  Wednesday,       .        .    Medina  del  Campo,  .    3^ 

6,  Thursday,      .        .        Horcajo  de  los  Torres,  3 

7,  Friday,       .        .        .    Penaranda,        .         .    4 

8,  Saturday,       .        .        Alaraz,  .         .        4 

9,  Sunday,     .         .         .     Gallegos  de  Solmiron,  3 

10,  Monday,         .         .         Barco  de  A^ila,  .    3 

11,  Tuesday,    .         ,         .     Tornavacas,  .         6  or  7 

12,  Wednesday,  Xarandilla,  .      .     6  or  7 


In  all,        36i  to  38i  leagues. 


34  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

north  by  lofty  sierras,  and  watered  with  abundant 
streams,  its  mild  climate,  rich  soil,  and  perpetual  ver- 
dure led  some  patriotic  scholars  of  Estreraadura  to 
identify  this  beautiful  valley  with  the  Elysium  of 
Homer,  —  "  the  green  land  without  snow,  or  winter, 
or  showers,"  —  in  spite  of  the  "soft-blowing  sea- 
Jbreeze"  which  refreshed  the  one,  and  the  torrents  of 
rain  which  sometimes  deluged  the  other.  With 
greater  plausibility  the  Vera  was  conjectured  to  have 
been  the  scene  where  Sertorius  fell  by  the  traitor- 
hand  of  Perperna.*  Saintly  history  also  deemed  it 
hallowed,  in  the  seventh  century,  by  the  last  labors  of 
St.  Magnus  of  Ireland;!  and  in  the  eighth  century, 
by  the  martyrdom  of  fourteen  Andalusian  bishops 
slain  in  one  massacre  by  the  Saracen.  The  fair  val- 
ley was  unquestionably  famous  throughout  Spain  for 
its  wine,  oil,  chestnuts,  and  citrons,  for  its  magnificent 
timber,  for  the  deer,  bears,  wolves,  and  all  other  ani- 
mals of  the  chase,  which  abounded  in  its  woods,  and 
for  the  delicate  trout  which  peopled  its  mountain 
waters. 

The  reasons  which  guided  Charles  the  Fifth  in  his 
choice  of  a  retreat  have  never  been  satisfactorily  ex- 
plained.    There  is  no  direct  evidence  that  he  had  even 


•  Strada :  De  Bella  Belgico,  Lib.  I. 

t  He  was  a  prior  of  a  convent  at  Garganta  la  011a.  J.  de  Tamayo 
Salazar :  San  Epitacio  de  Tui,  4to,  Madrid,  1646,  p.  42 ;  and  Sancti  His- 
pani,  6  vols,  fol.,  Lugd.  1657,  V.  p.  68.  The  fact,  however,  is  disputed 
and  the  honor  claimed  for  the  Alps,  and  a  place  called  Fuessen,  supposed 
to  be  derived  from  Fauces,  of  which  Garganta  is  also  a  translation.  The- 
odore of  St.  Gall,  who  wrote  the  life  of  St.  Magnus  (printed  by  J.  Mes- 
singham,  Florilegium  Sand.  Hibemia,  4to,  Paris,  1624,  p.  296),  is  entirely 
silent  as  to  the  claims  of  the  Vera. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  35 

visited  the  Vera  before  he  came  there  to  die.*  It  is 
possible  that  the  patriotism  of  some  Estremaduran 
companion  in  arms,  and  his  talk  on  the  march  or  by 
the  camp  fire,  may  have  obtained  for  his  native  prov- 
ince the  honor  of  being  the  scene  of  the  emperor's 
evening  of  life.  While  making  the  pilgrimage  to  the 
shrine  of  Our  Lady  of  Guadalupe,  in  April,  1525,f 
or  during  the  few  days  which  he  spent  at  Oropesa  on 
his  way  to  Seville,  in  February,  1526,  $  it  is  not  im- 
probable that  love  of  the  chase  may  have  tempted 
Charles  to  penetrate  the  surrounding  forests,  and  that 
the  sylvan  valley  may  have  remained  pictured  in  his 
memory  as  the  very  solitude  for  some  future  Diocle- 
tian. In  1534  he  was  at  Salamanca,  visiting  his  old 
tutor,  bishop  Luis  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  and  undergoing 
the  pompous  and  pedantic  civilities  of  the  univer- 
sity ;  §  and  it  is  also  possible  that  in  that  journey  he 
may  have  had  a  glimpse  of  his  final  resting-place. 

*  Robertson  ( Charles  V.,  B.  XII.)  cites  no  authority  for  his  account  of 
the  matter.  "  From  Valladolid,"  says  he,  •'  he  [the  emperor]  continued 
his  journey  to  Plasencia  [a  town  which,  as  we  have  seen,  he  purposely 
avoided].  He  had  passed  through  this  place  a  great  many  years  before  ; 
and  having  been  struck  at  that  time  with  the  delightful  situation  of  the 
monastery  of  St.  Justus,  belonging  to  the  order  of  St.  Jerome,  not  many 
miles  distant  from  the  town,  he  had  then  observed  to  some  of  his  at- 
tendants that  this  was  a  spot  to  which  Diocletian  might  have  retired  with 
pleasure.  The  impression  had  remained  so  strong  on  his  mind  that  he 
pitched  upon  it  as  the  place  of  his  own  retreat." 

t  Fr.  Gabriel  de  Talavera :  Historia  de  Nuestra  Senora  de  Guadalupe, 
4to,  Toledo,  1597.  The  letter  of  brotherhood,  carta  de  hermandad,  given 
to  the  emperor,  printed  at  fol.  210,  is  dated  21  April,  1525. 

t  Itinerary  of  the  Emperor,  by  Vandenesse,  from  1519  to  1551,  printed  in 
Bradford's  Correspondence,  p.  490.  He  remained  at  Oropesa  (erroneously 
written  Aropesa)  from  the  25th  to  the  end  of  Februar}'. 

§  Gil  Gonzalez  de  Avila :  Historia  de  Salamanca,  4to,  Salamanca, 
1606,  p.  475. 


36  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

But  there  was  no  palace  or  hunting-seat  of  the  crown 
near  enough  to  the  Vera  to  have  made  him  naturally 
familiar  with  so  remote  a  spot ;  nor  do  the  annals  of 
Yuste,  or  even  of  Plasencia,  contain  any  record  of  an 
imperial  visit  either  to  the  sequestered  convent  or  to 
the  pleasant  city.  Of  the  natural  charms  of  the  place 
he  may  have  heard  enough  to  attract  him  thither; 
the  reputation  of  the  valley  for  salubrity,  which 
seems  to  have  been  scarcely  deserved,*  was  probably 
rather  the  consequence  than  the  cause  of  its  being 
chosen  for  his  retreat  by  the  monarch  of  the  fairest 
portions  of  Europe. 

The  village  of  Xarandilla  is  seated  on  the  side  of 
the  sierra  of  Xaranda,  and  near  the  confluence  of  two 
mountain  torrents  which  fall  from  the  rugged  Pena- 
negra.  Its  chief  feature  is  the  parish  church  of  Our 
Lady  of  the  Tower,  perched  on  a  mass  of  rock  forty 
feet  high,  and  approached  by  steep  and  narrow  stairs, 
which  give  it  the  appearance  of  a  place  rather  of  de- 
fence than  devotion.  The  mansion  of  the  Oropesas, 
built  in  the  feudal  style,  with  corner  towers,  has  long 
been  in  ruins;  and  of  its  imperial  inmate,  the  village 
has  preserved  no  other  memorial  than  a  fountain, 
which  is  still  called  the  fountain  of  the  emperor,  in 
the  garden  of  a  deserted  monastery  once  belonging 
to  the  order  of  St.  Augustine. 

*  Mariana  (Z)e  Reb.  Hisp.,l,\h.XI.  cap.  14,  fol.,  Toleti,  1592,  p.  533) 
gives  the  city  of  Plasencia  an  opposite  character.  The  site  was  called 
Ambroz,  but  Alonso  VIII.  changed  the  name ;  —  "  quod  nomen  Placen- 
tise  appellatione  mutari  placuit,  ominis  caussa  quasi  divis  et  hominibus 
placiturae  et  ex  regionis  amasnitate,  quamvis  cceH  salubritate  non  eadem." 
This  passage  is  cited  by  Fr.  Alonso  Fernandez,  in  his  Historia  y  Anales 
de  Plasencia,  fol.,  Madrid,  1627,  p.  6,  with  the  suppression,  rather  patri- 
otic than  honest,  of  the  latter  damaging  clause. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  37 

Here  Charles  remained  for  nearly  three  months, 
awaiting  the  completion  of  the  works  at  Yuste.  His 
abode,  though  only  an  occasional  residence  of  his 
host,  Fernando,  fourth  count  of  Oropesa,  was  com- 
modious in  all  save  fireplaces,  and  in  the  opinion  of 
his  attendants  was  handsomely  furnished  and  fitted 
up.  He  installed  himself  in  a  room  with  a  southern 
aspect,  opening  upon  a  covered  gallery,  and  overlook- 
ing a  flower-garden  planted  with  orange-trees.  For 
a  few  days  he  lived  as  the  count's  guest ;  but  finding 
that  his  stay  might  be  indefinitely  prolonged,  he  after- 
wards commenced  housekeeping  on  his  own  account. 
On  the  18th  of  November,  therefore,  Oropesa  and  his 
brother,  Francisco  Alvarez  de  Toledo,  who  had  been 
viceroy  of  Peru,*  and  ambassador  to  the  council  of 
Trent,  took  their  leave,  and  returned  to  their  usual 
home,  somewhere  on  their  adjoining  estates,  which 
extended  far  into  the  Vera  on  one  side,  and  across  the 
mountain  to  Tornavacas  on  the  other. 

During  the  whole  month  of  November  the  weather 
was  cold  and  stormy,  giving  a  cheerless  prospect  of 
the  winter  climate  of  Estremadura.  Rain  fell  every 
day,  sometimes  in  torrents,  and  was  followed  by  fogs, 
sometimes  so  thick  that  a  man  became  invisible  at 
the  distance  of  twelve  paces.  Yuste,  on  its  wooded 
hill-side,  was  wrapped  in  a  mantle  of  perpetual  and 
impenetrable  mist.  For  whole  days  it  was  impos- 
sible to  leave  the  house,  the  streets  of  Xarandilla  be- 
ing canals  of  muddy  water,  through  which  Luis 
Quixada  waded  from  his  lodging  to  his  daily  duties, 
in  fisherman's  boots  made  of  felt  and  cowhide. 


P.  de  Rojas:  Discursos  Genealogicos,  4to,  Toledo,  1636,  p.  Ill, 

4 


38  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

Meanwhile  the  emperor,  wrapped  in  a  robe  of  eider- 
down made  from  the  princess's  cushions,  sat  by  the 
fireside,  in  good  health  and  spirits,  attended  by  the 
secretary  Gaztelu,  who  read  to  him  the  despatches 
which  arrived  almost  daily  from  VaUadolid,  and 
wrote  replies  from  his  dictation.  The  course  of 
events  in  Flanders  was  watched  by  Charles  with  es- 
pecial interest ;  he  was  always  eager  for  intelligence, 
and  Gaztelu  never  finished  reading  a  letter  without 
being  asked  if  there  w^as  no  more. 

By  a  remarkable  coincidence,  the  year  which  saw 
the  emperor  descend  from  his  throne,  at  the  age  of 
fifty-six,  to  prepare  for  his  tomb,  likewise  saw  a  new- 
ly elected  pope  plunging,  at  the  age  of  eighty,  into 
the  vortex  of  political  strife,  with  all  the  reckless  ardor 
of  a  boy.  The  two  men  seemed  to  have  changed 
characters  as  well  as  places.  Charles,  the  most  am- 
bitious of  princes,  was  about  to  turn  monk ;  Caraffa, 
the  most  studious  and  ascetic  of  monks,  bursting  from 
that  chrysalis  state,  shone  forth  as  the  most  splendid 
and  restless  sovereign  in  Europe.  No  Gregory  or 
Alexander  ever  played  the  old  pontifical  game  of 
usurpation  and  nepotism  with  more  arrogance  and 
audacity  than  Paul  the  Fourth.  Since  Clement  stole 
from  his  sacked  city  and  beleaguered  castle  in  the 
cuirass  and  jack-boots  of  a  trooper,  the  popes  had 
taken  care  to  exert  only  in  the  gentlest  manner  their 
paternal  authority  over  the  house  of  Hapsburg.  But 
Paul,  as  if  his  studies  had  never  been  disturbed  by 
the  trumpets  of  Bourbon,  flung  experience  and  pru- 
dence to  the  winds.  Hating  Spain  with  the  hatred 
of  an  hereditary  bondsman,  the  old  volcanic  Neapoli- 
tan poured  forth  against  her  torrents  of  the  foulest 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  39 

abuse,  and,  sitting  in  the  pastoral  chair  of  St.  Peter, 
he  denounced  the  Spanish  portion  of  his  Christian 
flock  as  "  heretics,  schismatics,  accursed  of  God,  the 
spawn  of  Jews  and  Moors,  the  ofFscouring  of  the 
earth."  *  War  seemed  to  offer  a  prospect,  not  only  of 
gratifying  his  hatred  with  sharper  weapons  than 
^vords,  but  of  providing  his  nephews  with  duchies, 
which  were  seldom  to  be  obtained  in  times  of  peace. 
He  therefore  lured  France  across  the  Alps,  holding 
out  such  hopes  of  the  crown  of  Naples  as  no  French 
king  has  ever  been  able  to  realize  or  resist.  Henry 
the  Second,  only  a  few  months  before,  had  concluded 
a  truce  for  five  years  with  the  king  of  Spain.  But  at 
the  call  of  the  minister  of  truth  and  peace,  whose  he- 
reditary device  happened  to  bear  the  canting  motto, 
Cara  Fe,  he  was  ready  to  commit  any  profitable  per- 
fidy and  undertake  any  promising  war.  The  admiral 
Coligny  was  therefore  sent  to  carry  fire  and  sword 
into  Flanders;  and  the  gallant  duke  of  Guise,  the 
ablest  general  in  France,  led  twenty  thousand  of  her 
best  troops  into  Italy. 

Philip  the  Second,  too  faithless  himself  to  be  sur- 
prised at  the  bad  faith  of  his  royal  brother,  took  vig- 
orous measures  to  frustrate  his  endeavors.  He  gave 
the  military  command  of  the  Netherlands  to  duke 
Emanuel  Philibert  of  Savoy ;  he  intrusted  the  duke ' 
of  Alba  with  the  defence  of  Naples ;  and  he  himself 


*  "  Heretici,  scismatici,  et  maladetti  de  Dio,  seme  de'  Giudei  et  de' 
Marrani.  feccia  del  mondo."  Cited  by  Federigo  Badovaro  in  his  Rela- 
tione, 1557,  made  to  his  government  as  ambassador  from  Venice  to  the 
king  of  Spain,  of  which  an  account  is  given  in  an  interesting  paper  by 
Marchal  in  the  Bulletins  de  V Academic  Royalc  des  Sciences  et  Belles  Lettres 
de  Bruxelles,  Tom.  XII.  1"  partie,  1845,  p.  63. 


40  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

passed  into  England,  and  secured  the  cooperation  of 
the  love-sick  Mary,  in  the  teeth  of  her  distrustful  and 
Spain-hating  ministers  and  people. 

After  a  lapse  of  three  centuries,  Emanuel  Philibert 
still  ranks  as  the  most  able  and  honest  prince  of  that 
royal  line  of  Savoy,  in  which,  although  ability  has 
seldom  been  wanting,  geography  seems  to  have  ren- 
dered honesty  almost  impossible.*  His  father,  duke 
Charles,  in  the  long  wars  between  Francis  the  First 
and  Charles  the  Fifth,  had  been  nearly  stripped  of  his 
territory.  Part  was  conquered  by  his  nephew  and 
enemy,  the  king;  and  part  was  held,  for  security's 
sake,  in  the  strong  grasp  of  his  brother-in-law  and 
friend,  the  emperor.  When  his  life  and  injuries  were 
ended,  Emanuel  Philibert  found  a  few  remote  valleys 
of  highland  Piedmont  the  sole  dominion  of  the  house 
which  claimed  the  crowns  of  Cyprus  and  Jerusalem. 
Happily  the  young  Ironhead,  as  he  was  called,  had 
early  foreseen  that  the  career  of  a  soldier  of  fortune 
was  the  one  path  by  which  he  could  hope  to  regain 
his  position  among  the  princes  of  Europe.  He  there- 
fore gave  himself,  heart  and  soul,  to  the  profession  of 
arms,  and,  having  served  with  distinction  under  his 
imperial  uncle  in  Germany  and  Flanders,  he  was  al- 
ready, though  still  under  thirty,  reckoned  one  of  the 
best  captains  in  the  service  of  Spain.f 

Ferdinand  duke  of  Alba  became,  in  his  old  age,  the 
last  of  the  great  soldiers  of  Castille.  His  grandfather, 
the  first  duke,  under  the  Catholic  king,  had  led  the 
Christian   chivalry  to   the   leaguer  of   Granada;  his 

*  "La  Gfeographie  les  emp6che  d'etre  honn6tes  gens."     Prince  de 
Ligne  :  Melanges,  5  torn.  8vo,  Paris,  1829,  V.  p.  29. 

t  Ilistoire  d' Emanuel  Philibert.,  12mo,  Amsterdam,  1693,  p.  5. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  41 

father  had  left  his  bones  among  the  Moors  in  the  Af- 
rican isle  of  Zerbi ;  and  he  himself  had  fought  by  the 
side  of  the  emperor  on  the  banks  of  the  Danube,  be- 
neath the  walls  of  Tunis,  in  Provence  and  Dauphiny, 
and  in  the  Protestant  electorates.  He  had  held  inde- 
pendent  commands  of  importance  in  Catalonia  and 
Navarre,  and  he  had  commanded  in  chief  in  the  cam- 
paign which  closed  with  the  victory  at  Muhlberg  and 
the  capture  of  the  duke  of  Saxony.  These  triumphs 
had  been  clouded  by  his  repulse  from  Metz,  and  his 
late  reverses  in  the  Milanese ;  but  the  stern  discipli- 
narian was  still  hardly  past  the  prime  of  life,  and  in 
full  favor  with  his  sovereign  ;  and  he  joined  the  army 
of  Naples,  resolved  to  win  back  on  the  Roman  Cam- 
pagna  the  laurels  which  he  had  lost  on  the  plains  of 
the  Po.* 

Besides  the  momentous  affairs  of  Italy  and  the 
Netherlands,  several  minor  matters  claimed  and  ob- 
tained the  emperor's  attention.  Foremost  among 
them  stood  the  negotiations  with  the  court  of  Portu- 

*  J.  V.  Rustant :  Historia  del  Duque  de  Alva,  2  torn.,  4to,  Madrid,  1751 ; 
a  book  which  seems  to  be  little  more  than  a  translation  of  the  rare  Latin 
life  by  Osorio.  This  famous  leader  is  held  very  cheap  by  Badovaro  in 
his  Relatione,  already  quoted  at  p.  39.  He  accuses  him,  not  only  of  ig- 
norance of  military  affairs,  but  of  cowardice,  and  asserts  that  his  appoint- 
ment to  the  chief  command  in  Germany  astonished  the  whole  army,  and 
was  a  mere  job  to  please  the  Spaniards,  which  the  emperor  consented  to, 
because  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  do  the  whole  work  himself.  As 
regards  Charles,  this  statement  is  so  improbable,  that  it  may  well  be 
supposed  to  rest  on  the  authority  of  some  of  the  numerous  enemies  of 
Alba,  who  hated  him  for  his  haughty  manners  and  severe  discipline.  It 
is  certain  that  he  had  every  opportunity  of  learning  his  profession  in  all 
the  imperial  wars,  that  the  emperor  himself  employed  him  at  Metz,  and 
that  in  his  old  age  he  was  so  far  superior  to  any  other  general  in  the 
Spanish  service,  that  Philip  the  Second  intrusted  him,  though  in  dis- 
grace at  the  time,  with  the  conquest  of  Portugal. 
4* 


42  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

gal,  touching  the  infanta  Mary.  Queen  Eleanor,  the 
mother  of  this  princess,  had  not  seen  her  since  the 
time  when  she  herself  had  been  recalled,  in  her  first 
widowhood,  to  Castille  by  the  emperor,  and  had  left 
her  baby  under  the  care  of  her  half-brother,  John  the 
Third.  She  parted  with  her  sadly  against  her  will, 
and  only  because  the  usages  of  Portugal  and  the 
clamors  of  the  city  of  Lisbon  did  not  permit  an  in- 
fanta to  leave  the  kingdom.  It  had  since  been  the 
main  object  of  the  fond  mother's  heart  to  negotiate 
for  her  daughter  «uch  a  marriage  as  should  set  her  free 
from  this  thraldom,  and  once  more  reunite  them.  She 
had  first  affianced  her  to  the  Dauphin,  who  did  not 
live  to  fulfil  his  engagement;  and  she  afterwards 
vainly  endeavored  to  match  her  with  Maximilian,  king 
of  Bohemia,  and  Philip  of  Castille.*  In  following  her 
brother  and  sister  to  Spain,  Eleanor  was  much  influ- 
enced by  the  hope  of  inducing  her  daughter  to  come 
and  reside  with  her  in  that  country.  Philip  the  Second 
also  seemed  desirous  of  making  some  amends  for  his 
ungenerous  treatment  of  the  infanta,  by  marrying  her 
to  their  mutual  cousin,  the  archduke  Charles  of  Austria. 
John  the  Third  of  Portugal,  her  guardian,  was  like- 
wise solicitous  to  provide  her  with  a  husband,  and  had 
offered  her  hand,  not  only  to  the  archduke,  but  also  to 
the  emperor  Ferdinand  his  father,  and  to  the  duke  of 
Savoy,  without  success,  f  Dispirited  by  these  morti- 
fications, Mary  herself  turned  her  thoughts  to  the  nat- 
ural refuge  of  a  love-lorn  damsel  of  thirty-six,  —  the 
cloister  ;    and   the  falseness  of  Philip  had  filled  her 

*  Damiam  de  Goes  :  Cttronica  do  liei  Dom  Emanuel,  4  tom.,fol.,  Lisbon, 
1566-7,  IV.  p.  84. 

f  Meneses  :  Chronica  de  D  iSebastiao,  p.  69. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  43 

heart  with  bitterness  towards  Spain  and  her  Spanish 
relations,  and  with  distrust  of  any  proposal  which 
came  from  beyond  the  Guadiana.  She  even  demurred 
about  complying  with  the  desire  of  her  mother,  that 
they  should  meet  on  the  frontier  of  the  two  kingdoms  ; 
and  the  king  of  Portugal  sustained  her  objections,  on 
the  ground  that  he  did  not  wish  her  to  be  inveigled 
into  taking  the  veil  in  a  Spanish  nunnery.  The  em- 
peror had  already  declined  his  son's  invitation  to  in- 
terfere, but  he  now  found  it  impossible  to  resist  the 
entreaties  of  his  sisters  and  the  princess-regent.  He 
therefore  allowed  the  Portuguese  ambassador,  Don 
Sancho  de  Cordova,  to  come  to  Xarandilla  on  the 
29th  of  November,  and  gave  him  several  audiences 
during  his  two  days'  stay. 

King  Anthony  of  Navarre,  as  he  was  called  in 
France,  in  right  of  his  wife,  or  the  duke  of  Vendorae, 
as  he  was  styled  in  Spain,  had  also  contrived  to  gain 
the  emperor's  attention  to  his  proposals.*  His  emis- 
sary, M.  Kzcurra,  therefore  presented  himself  at  Xa- 
randilla, on  the  3d  of  December,  and  was  dismissed 
with  a  letter,  written  in  cipher,  to  the  secretary  Vaz- 
quez. 

On  the  8th  of  December  there  arrived  a  Jew  of  Bar- 
bary,  bringing  with  him  papers  to  prove  that  the  king 
of  France  was  negotiating  a  secret  treaty  at  Fez,  by 
which  it  was  rendered  probable  that  Moorish  rovers 
would  soon  revenge  on  the  coasts  of  Spain  the  rav- 
ages committed  by  the  Spanish  troops  on  the  frontiers 
of  Picardy.  The  informer  was  sent  on  to  Valladolid, 
on  the  9th,  with  a  letter  to  the  secretary  of  state. 

"  Chap.  I.  p.  24. 


44 


THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


The  progress  of  the  works  at  Yuste,  and  the  prepa- 
rations for  removal  thither,  were  sul^ects  of  every-day 
discussion.  The  new  buildings  had  been  commenced 
more  than  three  years  before,  the  first  money  being 
paid  for  the  purpose  on  the  30th  of  July,  1553.  Gas- 
par  de  Vega,  one  of  the  best  of  the  royal  architects, 
gave  the  plans,  working,  however,  it  is  said,  from  a 
sketch  drawn  by  the  emperor's  own  hand.  Yuste  was 
visited  on  the  24th  of  May,  1554,  by  Philip,  at  the  de- 
sire of  his  father,  as  he  was  on  his  road  to  England. 
He  assisted  at  the  procession  of  Corpus  Christi,  in- 
spected the  works  with  great  minuteness,  and  slept  a 
night  in  the  convent.  The  control  of  the  cash  and 
the  general  superintendence  of  the  building  were  in- 
trusted to  Fray  Juan  de  Ortega,  general  of  the  Jero- 
mites,  and  Fray  Melchor  de  Pie  de  Concha.  Ortega 
was  a  man  of  ability  and  learning,  who  enjoyed  for  a 
time  the  reputation  of  having  written  Lazarillo  de 
Tonnes,  the  charming  parent  of  those  picaresque  sto- 
ries in  which  modern  fiction  had  its  birth«  Certain 
reforms  which  he  attempted  to  introduce  into  the  Fule 
of  his  order  met  with  so  much  opposition  and  odium, 
that  he  was  deposed  from  the  generalship,  when  his 
successor,  Tofiiio,  thought  fit  to  remove  him  and  his 
assistant.  Concha,  from  their  functions  at  Yuste.  The 
emperor,  however,  was  highly  indignant  at  this  inter- 
ference, and  immediately  replaced  them  in  their  du- 
ties, which  they  continued  to  discharge  at  the  time  of 
his  arrival  at  Xarandilla. 

The  greatest  secrecy  had  been  enjoined  as  to  the 
purpose  of  these  architectural  operations,  and  Charles 
had  evinced  much  displeasure  on  learning  that  his  in- 
tention of  retiring  to  the  monastery  had  been  spoken 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  45 

of  in  the  country,  owing  to  the  indiscreet  tattling  of 
the  friars.  Ortega,  as  well  as  the  general  Tofiiio,  had 
been  summoned  to  meet  him  at  Valladolid,  and  now 
at  Xarandilla  they  and  the  prior  of  Yuste  had  long 
and  frequent  audiences.  On  the  22d  of  November,  in 
spite  of  the  rain  and  fog,  the  emperor  got  into  his  lit- 
ter, and  went  over  to  the  convent,  to  inspect  the  state 
of  the  works  for  himself.  It  being  the  feast  of  St. 
Catherine,  it  was  his  first  care  to  perform  his  devo- 
tions in  the  church.  Notwithstanding  the  gloom  of 
the  weather  and  the  wintry  forest,  he  declared  himself 
satisfied  with  what  he  saw,  and  ordered  forty  beds  to 
be  prepared,  twenty  for  masters  and  twenty  for  ser- 
vants, as  speedily  as  possible.  His  intention  was  to 
remain  at  Xarandilla  until  the  arrival  of  certain  books 
and  papers,  which  it  was  necessary  to  consult  before 
settling  with  the  domestics  whom  he  was  about  to 
discharge  ;  but  he  hoped  to  remove  to  the  convent  in 
the  middle  of  December. 

Meanwhile,  the  household,  especially  the  Flemish 
and  more  numerous  portion  of  it,  was  in  a  state  of 
discontent,  bordering  on  mutiny.  The  chosen  para- 
dise of  the  master  was  regarded  as  a  sort  of  hell  upon 
earth  by  the  servants.  The  mayordomo  and  the  sec- 
retary poured,  by  every  post,  their  griefs  into  the  ear 
of  the  secretary  of  state.  The  count  of  Oropesa,  wrote 
Luis  Quixada,  had  been  driven  away  from  Xaran- 
dilla by  the  damp,  and  Yuste  w^as  well  known  to  be 
far  damper  than  Xarandilla.  His  majesty  had  been 
pleased  to  approve  of  the  abode  prepared  for  him,  but 
he  himself  had  likewise  been  there,  and  knew  that  it 
was  full  of  defects  and  discomfort.  The  rooms  were 
too  small,  the  windows  too  large  ;  the  window  which 


46  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

opened  from  the  emperor's  bed-room  into  the  church 
would  not  command  the  elevation  of  the  host  at  the 
high  altar ;  and  if  service  were  performed  at  one  of 
the  side  altars,  where  the  officiating  monk  could  be 
seen  by  his  majesty  in  bed,  his  majesty  in  bed  would 
be  seen  by  the  monk.  In  spite  of  the  glass  and  the 
shutters,  he  feared  that  the  emperor  would  be  dis- 
turbed during  the  night  when  the  hours  were  chanted. 
The  apartments  on  the  ground  floor  were  in  utter 
darkness,  and  reeking  with  moisture;  the  garden  was 
paltry,  the  orange-trees  few,  and  the  boasted  prospect, 
what  was  it,  but  a  hill  and  some  oak-trees  ?  Never- 
theless, he  hoped  the  place  might  prove  better  than  it 
promised  ;  and  he  entreated  the  secretary  not  to  show 
his  letter  to  her  highness,  nor  to  tell  her  of  the  dispar- 
aging tone  in  which  he  had  written  about  Yuste. 

Gaztelu  was  equally  desponding.  Some  of  the 
friars  were  to  be  drafted  off  into  other  convents,  to 
make  room  for  the  new-comers  ;  and  none  being 
willing  to  forego  the  chances  of  imperial  favor,  fierce 
dissensions  had  arisen  on  this  point,  and  had  even 
reached  the  emperor's  ears.  It  seemed  as  if  his  maj- 
esty must  adjust  these  quarrels  himself,  or  seek  an- 
other retreat,  which  would  be  much  against  his  incli- 
nation ;  but,  indeed,  what  good  could  be  expected  to 
come  of  wishing  to  live  among  friars  ?  Their  quarter- 
master, Ruggier,  in  reporting  progress,  had  ventured 
to  complain  of  the  want  of  servants'  accommodation. 
At  this  the  emperor  was  very  angry,  and,  telling  him 
that  he  wanted  his  service  and  not  his  advice,  said  he 
must  find  means  of  lodging  twenty-one  of  the  people 
at  Yuste,  and  the  rest  at  Quacos,  "  a  place,"  added 
Gaztelu,   piteously,  "worse  than  Xarandilla."     Still 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  47 

more  was  the  emperor  exasperated  at  a  letter  which 
he  received  from  the  queen  of  Hungary,  entreating 
him  to  think  twice  before  he  settled  in  a  spot  "  so  un- 
healthy as  Yuste " ;  and  he  expressed  great  wrath 
against  those  who  had  given  her  such  information, 
and  whom  he  suspected  to  be  Monsieur  Lachaulx  and 
the  doctor  Cornelio,  who  had  lately  come  from  court. 
Poor  Lachaulx  might  well  be  excused  if  he  had  given 
an  unfavorable  report  of  the  climate,  for  he  continued 
to  burn  and  shiver  with  violent  ague  fits,  and  the  doc- 
tor found  a  good  many  patients  in  the  ranks  of  the 
household.  In  spite,  however,  of  these  various  dis- 
tresses, the  Flemings,  according  to  the  testimony  of 
the  Castillians,  looked  fair  and  fat,  and  fed  voracious- 
ly on  the  "  hams  and  other  bucolic  meats  "  of  Estre- 
madura,  a  province  still  unrivalled  in  its  swine  and 
its  savory  preparations  of  pork. 

In  this  matter  of  eating,  as  in  many  other  habits, 
the  emperor  was  himself  a  true  Fleming.  His  early 
tendency  to  gout  was  increased  by  his  indulgences  at 
table,  which  generally  far  exceeded  his  feeble  powers 
of  digestion.  Roger  Ascham,  standing  "  hard  by  the 
imperial  table  at  the  feast  of  Golden  Fleece,"  watched 
with  wonder  the  emperor's  progress  through  "  sod 
beef,  roast  mutton,  baked  hare,"  after  which  "  he  fed 
well  of  a  capon,"  drinking  also,  says  the  fellow  of  St. 
John's,  "  the  best  that  ever  I  saw ;  he  had  his  head  in 
the  glass  five  times  as  long  as  any  of  them,  and  never 
drank  less  than  a  good  quart  at  once  of  Rhenish 
wine."  *  Even  in  his  worst  days  of  gout  and  dyspep- 
sia, before  setting  out  from  Flanders,  the  fulness  and 

*   Works  of  Roger  Ascham,  4to,  London,  1761,  p.  375. 


48  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

frequency  of  the  meals  which  occurred  between  his 
spiced  milk  in  the  morning  and  his  heavy  supper  at 
night,  so  amazed  an  envoy  of  Venice,*  that  he  thought 
them  worthy  of  especial  notice  in  his  despatch  to  the 
senate.  The  emperor's  palate,  he  remarked,  was,  like 
his  stomach,  quite  worn  out;  he  was  ever  complain- 
ing of  the  sameness  and  insipidity  of  the  meats 
served  at  his  table ;  and  the  chief  cook,  Monfalco- 
netto,  at  last  protested,  in  despair,  that  he  knew  not 
how  to  please  his  master,  unless  he  were  to  gratify  his 
taste  for  culinary  novelty  and  chronometrical  mechan- 
£^rci/'-i»m  by  sending  him  a  pasty  of  watches. 

Eating  was  now  the  only  physical  gratification 
which  he  could  still  enjoy,  or  was  unable  to  resist.  He 
continued,  therefore,  to  dine  to  the  last  upon  the  rich 
dishes,  against  which  his  ancient  and  trusty  confes- 
sor, cardinal  Loaysa,  had  protested  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury before.f  The  supply  of  his  table  was  a  main 
subject  of  the  correspondence  between  the  mayor- 
domo  and  the  secretary  of  state.  The  weekly  courier 
from  Valladolid  to  Lisbon  was  ordered  to  change  his 
route  that  he  might  bring,  every  Thursday,  a  pro- 
vision of  eels  and  other  rich  fish  (pescado  grueso)  for 
Friday's  fast.  There  was  a  constant  demand  for 
anchovies,  tunny,  and  other  potted  fish,  and  some- 
times a  complaint  that  the  trouts  of  the  country  were 
too  small ;  the  olives,  on  the  other  hand,  were  too 
large,  and  the  emperor  wished,  instead,  for  olives  of 
Perejon.     One  day,  the  secretary  of  state  was  asked 

*  Badovaro.     See  p  39. 

t  Cartas  al  Evip.  Carlos  V.  escritas  en  los  Avos  de  1530-32.  CopiaJas 
de  las  Autografas  en  el  Archivo  de  Simancas.  Par  G.  Heine.  8vo,  Berlin, 
1848,  p.  69. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  49 

for  some  partridges  from  Gama,  a  place  from  whence 
the  emperor  remembered  that  the  count  of  Osorno 
once  sent  him,  into  Flanders,  "some  of  the  best  par- 
tridges in  the  world."  *  Another  day,  sausages  were 
wanted  "  of  the  kind  which  the  queen  Juana,  now  in 
glory,  used  to  pride  herself  in  making,  in  the  Flemish 
fashion,  at  Tordesillas,"  and  for  the  receipt  for  which 
the  secretary  is  referred  to  the  marquis  of  Denia. 
Both  orders  were  punctually  executed.  The  sau- 
sages, although  sent  to  a  land  supreme  in  that  manu- 
facture, gave  great  satisfaction.  Of  the  partridges, 
the  emperor  said  that  they  used  to  be  better,  ordering, 
however,  the  remainder  to  be  pickled. 

The  emperor's  weakness  being  generally  known  or 
soon  discovered,  dainties  of  all  kinds  were  sent  to 
him  as  presents.  Mutton,  pork,  and  game  were  the 
provisions  most  easily  obtained  at  Xarandilla ;  but 
they  were  dear.  The  bread  was  indifferent,  and 
nothing  was  good  and  abundant  but  chestnuts,  the 
staple  food  of  the  people.  But  in  a  very  few  days 
the  castle  larder  wanted  for  nothing.  One  day  the 
count  of  Oropesa  sent  an  offering  of  game ;  another 
day  a  pair  of  fat  calves  arrived  from  the  archbishop 
of  Zaragoza ;  the  archbishop  of  Toledo  and  the  duch- 
ess of  Frias  were  constant  and  magnificent  in  their 
gifts  of  venison,  fruit,  and  preserves ;  and  supplies  of 
all  kinds  came  at  regular  intervals  from  Seville  and 
from  Portugal. 

Luis  Quixada,  who  knew  the  emperor's  habits  and 
constitution   well,   beheld   with    dismay   these    long 

•  The  count  managed  that  they  should  reach  Flanders  in  perfect  con- 
dition by  "echandoles  orin  en  la  boca."    The  emperor  considered  that 
this  singular  preservative  would  not  be  necessary  in  the  present  journey. 
5 


50 


THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


trains  of  mules  laden,  as  it  were,  with  gout  and  bile. 
He  never  acknowledged  the  receipt  of  the  good  things 
from  Valladolid  without  adding  some  dismal  fore- 
bodings of  consequent  mischief;  and  along  with  an 
order  he  sometimes  conveyed  a  hint  that  it  would  be 
much  better  if  no  means  were  found  of  executing  it. 
If  the  emperor  made  a  hearty  meal  without  being  the 
worse  for  it,  the  mayordomo  noted  the  fact  with  exul- 
tation ;  and  he  remarked  with  complacency  his  maj- 
esty's fondness  for  plovers,  which  he  considered  harm- 
less. But  his  office  of  purveyor  was  more  commonly 
exercised  under  protest;  and  he  interposed  between 
his  master  and  an  eel-pie,  as,  in  other  days,  he  would 
have  thrown  himself  between  the  imperial  person  and 
the  point  of  a  Moorish  lance. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  51 


CHAPTER     III. 


SERVANTS  AXD   VISITORS. 


It  was  during  the  emperor's  stay  at  Xarandilla,  that 
his  household  was  joined  by  the  friar  of  the  order  of 
St.  Jerome,  whom  he  had  chosen  as  his  confessor. 
To  this  important  post  Juan  de  Regla  was  perhaps 
fairly  entitled,  by  his  professional  distinction ;  and  he 
was  certainly  one  of  those  monks  who  knew  how  to 
make  ladders,  to  place  and  favor,  of  the  ropes  which 
girt  their  ascetic  loins.  An  Aragonese  by  birth,  he 
first  saw  the  light  in  a  peasant's  hut  on  the  moun- 
tains of  Jaca,  in  1500,  the  same  year  in  which  the  fu- 
ture Csesar,  who  was  destined  to  be  his  spiritual  son, 
was  born,  in  the  halls  of  the  house  of  Burgundy,  in 
the  good  city  of  Ghent.  At  fourteen,  he  was  sent  to 
Zaragoza,  to  make  one  of  the  motley  crew  of  poor 
scholars,  so  often  the  glory  and  the  shame  of  the 
Spanish  church,  and  the  delight  of  the  picaresque  lit- 
erature. Obtaining  as  he  could  the  rudiments  of 
what  was  then  held  to  be  learning,  he  lived  on  alms 
and  the  charity-soup  dispensed  by  the  Jeromites  of 
Santa  Engracia.  During  the  vacations,  by  carrying 
letters  or  messages,  sometimes  as  far  as  Barcelona, 
Valencia,  or  Madrid,  he  earned  a  little  money,  which 
he  spent  in  books.  His  diligent  pursuit  of  knowledge 
having  attracted  the  notice  of  the  fathers  of  Santa 
Engracia,  their  favor  obtained  for  him  the  post  of  do- 


52  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

mestic  tutor  to  two  lads  of  family,  who  were  about  to 
enter  the  university  of  Salamanca.  In  that  congenial 
abode  he  remained  for  thirteen  years,  in  the  last  six 
of  which  he  was  released  from  the  duties  of  peda- 
gogue, and  free  to  pursue  his  private  reading  of  theol- 
ogy, canon  law,  and  the  Biblical  tongues.  With  his 
mind  thus  stored,  he  returned,  in  his  thirty-sixth  year, 
to  Zaragoza,  and  received  the  habit  of  St.  Jerome  in 
the  familiar  cloisters  of  Santa  Engracia,  Ere  long, 
he  had  made  himself  the  most  popular  confessor  with- 
in its  walls,  young  and  old  flocking  to  his  chair  in 
such  crowds,  that  it  seemed  as  if  perpetual  holy-week 
were  kept  in  the  convent  church.  As  a  preacher,  his 
success  was  not  so  great;  and  the  critics  considered 
his  discourses  to  be  deficient  in  learning,  of  which, 
nevertheless,  he  had  enough  to  be  chosen  as  one  of 
the  theologians  sent,  in  1551,  by  Charles  the  Fifth  to 
represent  the  doctors  of  Aragon  at  the  council  of 
Trent.  At  his  return  from  this  honorable,  but  fruit- 
less mission,  he  became  prior  of  the  convent  whose 
broken  meat  he  had  once  eaten ;  and  he  would  have 
been  elected  to  that  office  a  second  time,  had  not  the 
emperor  summoned  him  to  Xarandilla  to  commence 
a  higher  career  of  ambition,  and  to  enter  political  life 
at  the  precise  age  at  which  Charles  himself  was  retir- 
ing from  it.  On  being  introduced  into  the  imperial 
presence,  Regla  chose  to  speak,  in  the  mitre-shunning 
cant  of  his  cloth,  of  the  great  reluctance  which  he  had 
felt  in  accepting  a  post  of  such  weighty  responsibility. 
"  Never  fear,"  said  Charles,  somewhat  maliciously,  as 
if  conscious  that  he  was  dealing  with  a  hypocrite; 
"  before  I  left  Flanders,  five  doctors  were  engaged  for 
a  whole  year  in  easing  my  conscience ;  so  you  will 
have  nothing  to  answer  for  but  what  happens  here." 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  53 

It  may  be  as  well  now  to  sketch  the  portraits  of  the 
other  members  of  the  imperial  household,  who  after- 
wards formed  the  principal  personages  of  the  tiny 
court  of  Yuste.  Foremost  in  interest  as  in  rank 
stands  the  active  mayordomo,  who  has  already  fig- 
ured so  frequently  in  this  narrative,  Luis  Quixada, 
or,  to  give  him  his  full  Castillian  appellation,  Luis 
Mendez  Quixada  Manuel  de  Figueredo  y  Mendoza. 
He  was  the  second  son  of  Gutierre  Goncalez  Quixa- 
da, lord  of  Villagarcia,  by  Maria  Manuel,  lady  of  Villa- 
mayor,  and  with  his  two  brothers  early  embraced  the 
profession  of  arms.  The  elder  brother  became  so  dis- 
tinguished as  a  leader  of  the  famous  infantry  of  Spain, 
that  it  was  sufficient  praise  to  say  of  soldiers  in  that 
service  that  they  were  as  well  appointed  and  as  well 
disciplined  as  those  of  Gutierre  Quixada.*  He  was 
slain  before  Tunis,  in  1535,  when  the  family  estates 
passed  to  the  second  brother,  Luis.  Commencing  his 
career  as  a  page  in  the  imperial  household,  Luis  had 
likewise  served  with  distinction  in  the  same  cam- 
paign as  a  captain  of  foot.  His  sagacity  allayed  the 
discord  which  had  arisen  betw^een  the  Spanish  and 
Italians  about  the  post  of  honor  before  Goleta  ;f  and 
he  was  wounded  while  leading  his  company  to  the 
assault  of  its  bastions.  J  At  Tarvanna  he  was  again 
at  the  head  of  a  storming  party,  when  his  younger 
brother,  Juan,  fell  at  his  side,  slain  by  a  ball  from  a 
French  arquebuse.§  His  services  soon  raised  him  to 
the  grade  of  colonel,  and  he  was  also  promoted,  in  the 
imperial  household,  to  the  post  of  deputy  mayordomo, 

*  Cartas  de  Loai/sa,  p.  66. 

t  Sandoval :  Hist,  de  Carlos  V.,  Lib.  XXII.  c.  17.  i  Ibid.,  c.  27. 

§  J.  G.  Scpulveda :  De  Rebus  gestis  Caroli  F^  Lib.  XXVIU.  c.  27. 
5» 


54  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

under  the  duke  of  Alba,  and  in  that  capacity  con" 
stantly  attended  the  person  and  obtained  the  entire 
confidence  of  the  emperor.  In  1549,  he  married  Dona 
Magdalena  de  Ulloa,  a  lady  of  blood  as  blue  and  na- 
ture as  gentle  as  any  in  Castille.*  The  marriage  took 
place  at  Valladolid,  the  bridegroom  appearing  by 
proxy,  but  he  soon  after  obtained  leave  of  absence 
from  Bruxelles,  and  joined  his  bride  in  Spain.  They 
retired  for  a  while  to  his  patrimonial  mansion  at  Villa- 
garcia,  a  small  town  lying  six  leagues  from  Vallado- 
lid, beyond  the  heath  of  San  Pedro  de  la  Espina,  in 
the  vale  of  the  Sequillo. 

To  Quixada's  care  the  emperor  afterwards  confided 
his  illegitimate  son,  in  later  years  so  famous  as  Don 
John  of  Austria.  The  boy  was  sent  to  Spain  in  1550, 
in  his  fourth  year,  under  the  name  of  Geronimo,  in 
the  charge  of  one  Massi,  a  favorite  musician  of  the 
emperor,  who  was  told  that  he  was  the  son  of  Adrian 
de  Bues,  one  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  imperial  cham- 
ber, f    At  this  man's  death  he  remained  for  some  time 


*  Juan  de  Villafaiie :  Vtda  de  Dona  Magdalena  de  Ulloa,  4to,  Sala- 
manca, 1723,  p.  43. 

f  With  the  emperor's  will  was  deposited  in  the  royal  archives  a  packet 
of  four  papers,  which  appears  to  have  been  at  first  in  the  custody  of 
Philip  II.,  being  inscribed  in  his  handwriting,  "  If  I  die  before  his  maj- 
esty, to  be  returned  to  him ;  if  after  him,  to  be  given  to  my  son ;  or, 
failing  him,  my  next  heir."  In  the  first  of  these  papers,  the  contents 
of  which  will  be  noticed  more  particularly  in  another  place,  the  emperor 
acknowledged  Geronimo  to  be  his  son,  begotten,  during  his  widowhood, 
of  an  unmarried  woman  in  Germany,  and  referred  his  heir  for  further 
information  concerning  him  to  Adrian  de  Bues  ;  or,  in  case  of  his  death, 
to  Oger  Bodoarte,  porter  of  the  imperial  chamber.  Inside  this  document 
was  the  receipt  granted  by  Massi,  his  wife  Ana  de  Medina,  and  their  son 
Diego,  for  the  son  of  Adrian  de  Bues,  and  a  sum  of  one  hundred  crowns 
to  defray  his  travelling  expenses  to  Spain,  and  one  year's  board  and 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  55 

with  his  widow  at  Leganes,  near  Madrid,  learning  his 
letters  from  the  curate  and  sacristan,  running  wild 
among  the  village  children,  or  with  his  crossbow 
ranging  the  corn-clad  plains  in  pursuit  of  sparrows. 
It  was  not  until  1554  that  he  was  transferred  to  the 
more  fitting  guardianship  of  the  lady  of  Villagarcia  ; 
the  imperial  usher  who  brought  him,  bringing  her  also 
a  letter  from  Quixada,  commending  the  young  stran- 
ger to  her  care  as  "  the  son  of  a  great  man,  his  dear 
friend."  Magdalena,  who  had  no  children  of  her  own, 
took  the  pretty  sun-burnt  boy  at  once  to  her  heart, 
and  watched  over  him  with  the  tenderest  solicitude  ; 
supposing,  for  some  time,  that  he  was  the  offspring  of 
some  early  attachment  of  her  lord.  A  fire  breaking 
out  in  the  house  at  midnight,  Quixada,  by  rushing  to 
the  rescue  of  his  ward  before  he  attended  to  the  safety 
of  his  wife,  led  her  afterwards  to  suspect  the  truth.* 
But  as  long  as  the  emperor  lived,  the  mayordomo 
never  suffered  her  to  penetrate  the  mystery.  Amongst 
the  neighbors  Don  John  passed  for  a  favorite  page. 
The  parental  care  of  his  guardians,  whom  he  called, 
according  to  a  usual  mode  of  Castillian  endearment, 
his  uncle  and  aunt,  he  returned  with  the  affection  of 
a  son.  Dona  Magdalena  used  to  make  him  the  dis- 
penser of  the  alms  of  bread  and  money,  which  were 
given  at  her  gatp  on  stated  days  to  the  poor ;  and  her 

lodging,  calculated  from  the  1st  of  August,  1550,  and  binding  themselves 
to  accept  fifty  ducats  for  his  annual  keep  in  future,  and  to  preserve  the 
strictest  secrecy  as  to  his  parentage.  This  curious  receipt  is  dated 
Bruxelles,  13  June,  1550,  and  is  signed  by  the  parties,  Oger  Bodoarte 
signing  for  the  woman,  at  her  husband's  request,  she  being  unable  to 
write.  The  documents  are  printed  at  full  length  in  the  Papiera  de 
Granvelle,  IV.  496. 
*  Villafane :   Vida  de  M.  de  UUoa,  p.  43. 


56  THE    CLOISTER     LIFE    OF 

efforts  to  imbue  him  with  devotion  towards  the  Bles- 
sed Virgin  are  supposed  by  his  historians  to  have 
borne  good  fruit,  in  the  banners,  embroidered  with 
Our  Lady's  image,  which  floated  from  every  galley 
in  his  fleet  at  Lepanto.  In  the  early  part  of  his  edu- 
cation, Quixada  had  but  little  share,  being  generally 
absent  in  attendance  on  the  emperor.  During  his 
brief  visits  to  his  estate,  he  lived  the  usual  life  of  a 
country  hidalgo,  amusing  himself  with  the  chase  and 
law,  and  carrying  on  a  tedious  plea  with  his  tenants 
about  manorial  rights,  in  which  he  was  ultimately  de- 
feated. He  was,  nevertheless,  much  attached  to  his 
paternal  fields  on  the  naked  plains  of  Old  Castille, 
and  although  he  may  have  been  contented  to  exchange 
them  for  the  active  life  of  the  camp  or  the  court,  it 
was  not  without  many  a  pang  that  he  prepared  for 
his  banishment  to  the  wilds  of  Estremadura.  Uncon- 
sciously portrayed  in  his  own  graphic  letters,  the  best 
of  the  Yuste  correspondence,  he  stands  forth  the  type 
of  the  cavalier,  and  "  old  rusty  Christian,"  *  of  Cas- 
tille,—  spare  and  sinewy  of  frame,  and  somewhat  for- 
mal and  severe  in  the  cut  of  his  beard  and  the  fashion 
of  his  manners  ;  in  character  reserved  and  punctilious, 
but  true  as  steel  to  the  cause  espoused  or  the  duty 
undertaken ;  keen  and  clear  in  his  insight  into  men 
and  things  around  him,  yet  devoutly  believing  his 
master  the  greatest  prince  that  ever  had  been  or  was 
to  be ;  proud  of  himself,  his  family,  and  his  services, 
and  inclined,  in  a  grave,  decorous  way,  to  exaggerate 
their  importance ;  a  true  son  of  the  church,  with  an 

•  "  Cristiano  viejo    rancioso,"  Don  Quixote,  Part  I.  cap.  xxvii.,   so 
translated  by  Shclton. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  57 

instinctive  distrust  of  its  ministers  ;  a  hater  of  Jews, 
Turks,  heretics,  friars,  and  Flemings  ;  somewhat  tes- 
ty, somewhat  obstinate,  full  of  strong  sense  and  strong 
prejudice ;  a  warm-hearted,  energetic,  and  honest 
man. 

Martin  Gaztelu,  the  secretary,  comes  next  to  the 
mayordomo  in  order  of  precedence,  and  in  the  im- 
portance of  his  functions.  His  place  was  one  of  great 
trust.  The  whole  correspondence  of  the  emperor 
passed  through  his  hands.  Even-the  most  private  and 
confidential  communications  addressed  to  the  princess- 
regent  by  her  father,  were  generally  written  at  his  dic- 
tation by  Gaztelu ;  for  the  imperial  fingers  were  sel- 
dom sufficiently  free  from  gout  to  be  able  to  do  more 
than  add  a  brief  postscript,  in  which  Dona  Juana  was 
assured  of  the  affection  of  her  buen  padre  Carlos.  The 
secretary  had  probably  spent  his  life  in  the  service  of 
the  emperor ;  but  I  have  been  unable  to  learn  more  of 
his  history  than  his  letters  have  preserved.  His  epis- 
tolary style  was  clear,  simple,  and  business-like,  but 
inferior  to  that  of  Quixada  in  humor,  and  in  careless, 
graphic  touch,  and  more  sparing  in  glimpses  of  the 
rural  life  of  Estremadura  three  hundred  years  ago. 

William  Van  Male,  or,  as  the  Spaniards  called  him, 
Malines,  or  in  that  Latin  form  in  which  his  name  still 
lingers  in  the  by-ways  of  literature,  Malineus,  was 
the  scholar  and  man  of  letters  of  the  society.  Born  at 
Bruges,  of  a  noble  but  decayed  family,  and  with  a 
learned  education  for  his  sole  patrimony,  he  went  to 
seek  his  fortune  in  Spain,  and  the  service  of  the  duke 
of  Alba,  an  iron  soldier,  who  cherished  the  arts  of 
peace  with  a  discerning  love  very  rare  in  his  pTofession 
and  his  country.     He  afterwards  turned  his  thoughts 


58  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

towards  the  church,  but  not  obtaining  any  preferment 
he  did  not  receive  the  tonsure.  About  1548,  Don  Luis 
de  Avila,  grand-commander  of  Alcantara,  and  a  sol- 
dier, historian,  and  court  favorite  of  great  eminence, 
engaged  him  to  put  into  Latin  his  commentaries  on 
the  wars  in  Germany,  holding  out  hopes  of  placing 
him,  in  return,  in  the  imperial  household.  Van  Male 
executed  his  task  with  much  elegance,*  but  Avila 
failed  to  fulfil  the  hopes  he  had  excited,  although  the 
modest  ambition  of  his  translator  did  not  soar  beyond 
the  post  of  historiographer,  and  two  hundred  florins 
a  year.  Another  and  a  better  friend,  however,  the 
Seigneur  de  Praet,  obtained  for  Van  Male,  in  1550, 
the  place  of  barbero,  or  gentleman  of  the  imperial 
chamber  of  the  second  class. 

His  learning,  intelligence,  industry,  cheerful  dispo- 
sition, and  simple  nature,  made  him  a  great  favorite 
with  the  emperor,  who  soon  could  scarcely  dispense 
with  his  attendance  by  day  or  night.  With  a  strong 
natural  taste  for  arts  and  letters,  Charles  often  during 
his  busy  life  regretted  that  his  imperfect  early  educa- 
tion debarred  him  from  many  literary  pursuits  and 
pleasures.  In  Van  Male  he  had  found  a  humble  in- 
strument, ever  ready,  able,  and  willing  to  supply  his 
deficiencies.  Sailing  up  the  Rhine,  in  1550,  he  be- 
guiled the  tedium  of  the  voyage  by  composing  a 
memoir  of  his  campaigns  and  travels.  The  new 
gentleman  of  the  chamber  was  employed  on  his  old 
task  of  translation  ;  and  he  accordingly  turned   the 

*  Ludov.  de  Avila  Commentarioi~um  de  Bdlo  Germanico  a  Caroli  Ccesare 
gesto,  Lib.  H,  8vo,  Antverpiae,  1550.  It  was  printed  by  Steels,  who  re- 
printed it  the  same  year ;  and  another  edition  was  published  in  12mo,  at 
Strasburg,  in  1620. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  59 

emperor's  French,  which  he  likewise  pronounced  to 
be  terse,  elegant,  and  eloquent,  into  Latin,  in  which 
he  put  forth  his  whole  strength,  and  combined,  as  he 
supposed,  the  styles  of  Livy,  Caesar,  Suetonius,  and 
Tacitus. 

Another  of  the  emperor's  literary  recreations  was  to 
make  a  version,  in  Castillian  prose,  of  the  old  and 
popular  French  poem,  called  Le  Chevalier  Delibire, 
an  allegory  composed  some  twenty  years  before,  by 
Oliver  de  la  Marche,  in  honor  of  the  ducal  house  of 
Burgundy.  Fernando  de  Acuna,  a  soldier-poet,  and 
at  that  time  keeper  of  the  captive  elector,  George  Fred- 
erick of  Saxony,  was  then  commanded  to  turn  it  into 
rhyme,  a  task  which  he  performed  very  happily,  work- 
ing up  the  emperor's  prose  into  spirited  and  richly 
idiomatic  verse,  retouching  and  refreshing  the  anti- 
quated flattery  of  the  last  century,  and  stealing,  here 
and  there,  a  chaplet  from  the  old  Burgundian  monu- 
ment to  hang  upon  the  shrine  of  Aragon  and  Castille. 
The  manuscript  was  finally  given  to  Van  Male,  in 
order  to  be  passed  through  the  press,  the  emperor  tell- 
ing him  that  he  might  have  the  profits  of  the  publica- 
tion for  his  pains,  but  forbidding  that  the  book  should 
contain  any  allusion  to  his  own  share  in  its  produc- 
tion. Against  this  condition  Van  Male  remonstrated, 
knowing,  no  doubt,  that  the  name  of  the  imperial 
translator  would  sell  the  book  far  more  speedily  and 
certainly  than  any  possible  merit  of  the  translation, 
and  alleging  that  such  a  condition  was  an  injustice 
both  to  the  honorable  vocation  of  letters  and  to  the 
world  at  large.  The  emperor,  however,  was  inflexi- 
ble, and  the  Spanish  courtiers  wickedly  affected  the 
greatest  envy  at  the  good  fortune  of  the  Fleming. 


60 


THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


Luis  de  Avila,  with  special  malice,  in  his  quality  of 
author,  assured  the  emperor  that  the  book  would  yield 
a  profit  of  five  hundred  crowns,  upon  which  Charles, 
charmed  at  being  generous  at  no  cost  at  all,  remarked, 
"  Well,  it  is  right  that  William,  who  has  had  the 
greatest  part  of  the  sweat,  should  reap  the  harvest." 
Poor  Van  Male  saw  no  prospect  of  reaping  any  thing 
but  chaff;  he  timidly  hinted  at  the  risk  of  the  under- 
taking, and  did  his  best  to  escape  the  threatened  boon. 
But  hints  were  thrown  away  on  the  emperor ;  he  was 
eager  to  see  himself  in  type ;  and  he  accordingly  or- 
dered Jean  Steels  to  strike  off,  at  Van  Male's  expense, 
two  thousand  copies  of  a  book  which  is  now  scarce, 
perhaps  because  the  greater  part  of  the  impression 
passed  at  once  from  the  publisher  to  the  pastry-cook. 
The  pecuniary  results  have  not  been  recorded,  but 
there  is  little  doubt  that  the  Fleming's  fears  were  jus- 
tified rather  than  the  hopes  of  the  malicious  compan- 
ions, whom  he  called,  in  his  vexation,  "  those  windy 
Spaniards." 

During  the  six  harassed  and  sickly  years  which 
preceded  the  emperor's  abdication.  Van  Male  was  his 
constant  attendant,  and  usually  slept  in  an  adjoining 
room,  to  be  ever  within  call.  Many  a  sleepless  night 
Charles  beguiled  by  hearing  the  poor  scholar  read  the 
Vulgate,  and  illustrate  it  by  citations  from  Josephus 
or  other  writers ;  and  sometimes  they  sang  psalms  to- 
gether, a  devotional  exercise  of  which  the  emperor 
was  very  fond.  He  had  composed  certain  prayers  for 
his  own  use,  which  he  now  required  Van  Male  to  put 
into  Latin,  and  otherwise  correct  and  arrange.  The 
work  was  so  well  executed  that  Charles  several 
times  spoke,  in  the  hearing  of  some  of  the  other  cour- 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  61 

tiers,  of  the  comfort  he  had  found  in  praying  in  Van 
Male's  terse  and  elegant  Latinity,  instead  of  his  own 
rambling  French.  This  praise  from  the  master  pro- 
duced the  usual  envy  among  the  servants ;  the  chap- 
lains, especially,  were  indignant  that  a  layman  should 
have  thus  poached  upon  their  peculiar  ground  and  be 
praised  for  it,  and  they  assailed  him  with  all  kinds  of 
coarse  jests,  and  saluted  him  by  a  Greek  name  signi- 
fying praying-master.  They  did  not,  however,  under- 
mine his  credit;  the  emperor  treated  him  with  undi- 
minished confidence ;  he  alone  was  present  when  the 
doctors  Vesalius  and  Barsdorpius  were  wrangling 
over  the  symptoms  and  the  diseases  of  his  master's 
shattered  frame ;  and,  as  he  watched  through  the  long 
winter  nights  by  the  imperial  couch,  he  was  admitted 
to  a  nearer  view  than  any  other  man  had  ever  at- 
tained of  the  history  and  the  workings  of  that  ardent, 
reserved,  and  commanding  mind.  "  I  was  struck 
dumb,"  he  wrote  to  his  friend  De  Praet,  after  one  of 
these  mysterious  confidences,  "  and  I  even  now  trem- 
ble at  the  recollection  of  the  things  which  he  told 
me. 

The  small  collection  of  letters  to  De  Praet*  contain 
nearly  all  that  is  known  of  the  life  of  Van  Male. 
These  letters  were  written  for  the  most  part  in  1550, 
1551,  and  1552,  sometimes  by  the  emperor's  bedside, 
and  often  long  after  midnight,  when  his  tossings  had 
subsided  into  slumber.     Lively  and  agreeable  as  let- 

*  Lettres  sur  la  Vie  interieure  de  VEmpereur  Charles  Quint.,  ecrites  par 
Guillaume  Van  Male,  publiees  par  le  Baron  de  Reiffenberg,  8vo, 
Bruxelles,  1843.  M.  Reiffenberg  has  fallen  into  an  error  in  supposing 
(p.  xxiii)  that  Van  Male  retired  from  the  emperor's  service  at  the  time 
of  the  abdication. 

6 


62  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

ters,  they  are  invaluable  for  the  glimpses  they  afford 
of  the  every-day  life  of  Charles.  In  them  we  can  look 
at  the  hero  of  the  sixteenth  century  with  the  eyes  of 
his  valet.  We  can  see  him  in  his  various  moods,  — 
now  well  and  cheerful,  now  bilious  and  peevish  ;  ever 
suffering  from  his  fatal  love  of  eating  [edacitas  dam- 
nosa),  yet  never  able  to  restrain  it;  rebelling  against 
the  prudent  rules  of  Baersdrop  and  the  great  Vesa- 
lius,  and  appealing  to  one  Caballo  ( Caballus,  by  Van 
Male  called  onagrus  magnus),  a  Spanish  quack,  whose 
dietary  was  whatever  his  patient  liked  to  eat  and 
drink :  calling  for  his  iced  beer  before  daybreak,  and 
then  repenting  at  the  warnings  of  Van  Male  and  the 
dysentery ;  now  listening  to  the  book  of  Esdras,  or 
criticizing  the  wars  of  the  Maccabees,  ant^  now  laugh- 
ing heartily  at  a  filthy  saying  of  the  Turkish  envoy; 
groaning  in  his  bed,  in  a  complication  of  pains  and 
disorders ;  or  mounting  his  favorite  genet,  matchless 
in  shape  and  blood,  to  review  his  artillery  in  the  vale 
of  the  Moselle. 

In  spite  of  his  busy  life.  Van  Male  found  time  for 
his  beloved  books,  and  Dc  Praet  being  also  a  book- 
collector,  the  letters  addressed  to  him  are  full  of  noti- 
ces of  borrowings  and  lendings,  buyings  and  exchang- 
ings,  of  favorite  authors,  generally  the  classics.  At 
the  memorable  flight  from  Innspruck,  when  the  em- 
peror in  his  litter  was  smuggled  by  torchlight  through 
the  passes  into  Carinthia,  the  library  of  Van  Male 
fell,  with  the  rest  of  the  imperial  booty,  into  the  hands 
of  the  pikemen  of  duke  Maurice.  "  Ah,"  says  he, 
"with  how  many  tears  and  lamentations  have  I 
wailed  the  funeral  wail  of  my  library  ! "  When  the 
emperor's  great  army  lay  before  Metz,  sanguine  of 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  63 

success  and  plunder,  the  afflicted  scholar  prepared  for 
his  revenge,  and  engaged  some  Spanish  veterans, 
masters  in  the  art  of  pillage,  to  assist  him  in  securing 
the  cream  of  the  literary  spoil.  "  Non  ultra  vietas" 
however,  was  the  new  reading  which  the  gallantry  of 
Guise  enabled  the  wits  of  Metz  to  offer  of  the  famous 
"  Pius  ultra  "  of  Austria ;  and  Van  Male  was  balked 
of  the  hours  of  delicious  rapine  to  which  he  looked 
forward  amongst  the  cabinets  of  the  curious. 

But  if  he  were  willing  on  an  occasion  to  make  free 
with  other  men's  book-shelves,  he  was  also  willing  that 
other  men  should  make  free  with  the  produce  of  his 
own  brains.  The  emperor  having  read  Paolo  Gio- 
vio's  account  of  his  expedition  to  Tunis,  was  desirous 
that  certain  errors  should  be  corrected.  Van  Male 
was  therefore  desired  to  undertake  the  task,  and  he 
commenced  it,  so  new  was  the  art  of  reviewing,  by 
reading  the  work  four  times  through.  He  then  drew 
up,  with  the  assistance  of  hints  from  the  emperor,  a 
long  letter  to  the  author,  in  a  style  soft  and  courtly  as 
the  bishop's  own,  which  was  signed  and  sent  by  Luis 
de  Avila,  who,  having  served  in  the  war,  was  judged 
more  eligible  as  the  ostensible  critic. 

Under  the  pressure  of  duties  at  the  desk  and  in  the 
dressing-room,  the  health  of  Van  Male  gave  way,  and 
he  was  sometimes  little  less  a  valetudinarian  than  the 
great  man  to  whom  he  administered  Maccabees,  phy- 
sic, or  iced  beer.  He  had  seized  the  opportunity  of  a 
short  absence  on  sick  leave  to  crown  a  long  attach- 
ment by  marriage ;  and  some  time  before  his  master's 
abdication,  he  had  applied  for  a  place  in  the  treasury 
of  the  Netherlands,  under  his  friend  De  Praet.  The 
emperor,  on  hearing  of  his  entrance  into  the  wedded 


64  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

state,  expressed  the  warmest  approbation  of  the  step, 
and  interest  in  his  welfare.  "  You  will  hardly  believe," 
wrote  the  simple-minded  good  man,  "with  what  ap- 
proval Caesar  received  my  communication,  and  how, 
when  we  were  alone,  not  once,  but  several  times,  he 
laid  me  down  rules  for  my  future  guidance,  exhorting 
me  to  frugality,  parsimony,  and  other  virtues  of  do- 
mestic life."  His  majesty,  however,  gave  him  nothing 
but  good  advice,  unwilling,  perhaps,  to  diminish  the 
value  of  his  precepts  by  lessening  the  necessity  of 
practising  them.  Getting  no  place,  therefore,  Van 
Male  was  forced,  with  his  dear  Hippolyta  and  her 
babes,  to  encounter  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  and  the  moun- 
tain roads  of  Spain, 

The  emperor,  indeed,  could  not  do  without  him. 
Peevish  with  gout,  and  wearied  by  the  delays  at 
Yuste,  and  the  discontent  among  his  people,  he  one 
day  scolded  him  so  harshly  for  being  out  of  the  way 
when  he  called,  that  Van  Male  tendered  his  resigna- 
tion, which  was  accepted.  But  ere  a  week  had 
elapsed,  both  parties  had  cooled  down  ;  and  the  Span- 
ish secretary  remarked  that  William  had  not  only 
been  forgiven,  but  was  as  much  in  favor  as  before. 
His  temper  must  have  been  excellent,  for  he  contrived 
to  be  a  favorite  with  his  master  without  being  the  de- 
testation of  his  Castillian  fellow-servants. 

The  doctor  of  the  court  was  a  young  Fleming, 
named  Henry  Mathys,  or,  in  the  Spanish  form,  Ma- 
thisio.  He  had  not  held  the  appointment  long,  and 
there  being  much  sickness  at  Xarandilla,  it  was 
thought  advisable  to  summon  to  his  aid  Dr.  Giovanni 
Antonio  Mole,  from  Milan.  Cornelio,  a  Spaniard, 
who  had  long  been  physician  to  the  emperor,  and 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  65 

who  was  now  in  attendance  on  the  princess-regent, 
was  also  sent  for  to  Valladolid.  They  remained, 
however,  only  a  few  weeks  in  attendance,  and  Ma- 
thys  was  again  left  in  sole  charge  of  the  health  of  the 
emperor  and  his  people.  He  appears  to  have  dis- 
charged his  functions  creditably ;  and  with  the  pen, 
at  least,  he  was  indefatigable,  for  every  variation  in 
the  imperial  symptoms,  and  every  pill  and  potion 
with  which  he  endeavored  to  neutralize  the  slow  poi- 
sons daily  served  up  by  the  cook,  he  duly  chronicled 
in  Latin  despatches,  usually  addressed  to  the  king, 
and  written  with  singular  dulness  and  prolixity. 

Giovanni,  or,  as  he  was  familiarly  called,  Juanelo 
Torriano,  was  a  native  of  Cremona,  who  had  attained 
considerable  fame  as  a  mechanician,  and  in  that  ca- 
pacity had  been  introduced  into  the  emperor's  service 
many  years  before,  by  the  celebrated  Alonso  de  Ava- 
los.  Marques  del  Vasto.  Charles  brought  him  to  Es- 
tremadura  to  take  care  of  his  clocks  and  watches,  and 
to  construct  these  and  other  pieces  of  mechanism  for 
the  amusement  of  his  leisure  hours. 

Besides  the  envoys  and  other  official  people  whom 
state  affairs  called  to  Xarandilla,  there  were  several 
ancient  servants  of  the  emperor  who  came  thither  to 
tender  the  homage  of  their  loyalty.  One  of  these  de- 
serves especial  notice  for  the  place  he  holds  in  the 
history,  not  only  of  Spain,  but  of  the  religious  strug- 
gles of  the  sixteenth  century,  —  Francisco  Borja,  who, 
a  few  years  before,  had  exchanged  his  dukedom  of 
Gandia  for  the  robe  of  the  order  of  Jesus.  In  his  bril- 
liant youth,  this  remarkable  man  had  been  the  star  and 
pride  of  the  nobility  of  Spain.  He  was  the  heir  of  a 
great  and  wealthy  house,  a  branch  of  the  royal  line  of 

6» 


66  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

Aragon,  which  had  already  given  two  pontiffs  to 
Rome,  and  to  history  several  personages  remarkable 
for  the  brightness  of  their  virtues  and  the  blackness 
of  their  crimes.  "  The  universe,"  cried  a  poet,  some 
ages  later,  in  a  frenzy  of  panegyric,*  "is  full  of  Borja ; 
there  are  Borjas  famous  by  sea,  Borjas  great  by  land, 
Borjas  enthroned  in  heaven " ;  and  he  might  have 
added,  that  there  was  no  room  to  doubt  that  in  the 
lower  regions  also  the  house  of  Borja  was  fairly  rep- 
resented. Francisco  was  distinguished  no  less  by  the 
favor  of  the  emperor  than  by  the  splendor  of  his  birth, 
the  grace  of  his  person,  and  the  endowments  of  his 
mind.  Born  to  be  a  courtier  and  a  soldier,  he  was 
was  also  an  accomplished  scholar  and  no  inconsider- 
able statesman.  He  broke  horses  and  trained  hawks 
as  well  as  the  most  expert  master  of  the  manage  and 
the  mews;  he  composed  masses  which  long  kept  their 
place  in  the  choirs  of  Spain;  he  was  well  versed  in 
polite  learning,  and  deeply  read  in  the  mathematics ; 
he  wrote  Latin  and  Castillian,  as  his  works  still  testi- 
fy, with  ease  and  grace ;  he  served  in  Africa  and  Italy 
with  distinction  ;  and  as  viceroy  of  Catalonia  he  dis- 
played abilities  for  administration  which  in  a  few 
years  might  have  placed  him  high  amongst  the 
Mendozas  and  De  Lannoys.  The  pleasures  and 
honors  of  the  world,  however,  seemed  from  the  first 
to  have  but  slender  attraction  for  the  man  so  rarely 
fitted  to  obtain  them.  In  the  midst  of  life  and  its  tri- 
umphs, his  thoughts  perpetually  turned  upon  death 
and  its  mysteries.     Ever  punctilious  in  the  perform- 


*  Epitome  de  la  Eloquencia  Espariola,  par  D.  Francisco  Josef  Artiga, 
12mo,  Huesca,  1692.  See  dedication  to  the  duke  of  Gandia,  by  Fr. 
Man.  Artiga,  the  author's  son. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  67 

ance  of  his  religious  duties,  he  early  began  to  de- 
light in  spiritual  contemplation  and  to  discipline  his 
mind  by  self-imposed  penance.  Even  in  his  favorite 
sport  of  falconry  he  found  occasion  for  self-punish- 
ment, by  resolutely  fixing  his  eyes  on  the  ground  at 
the  moment  when  he  knew  that  his  best  hawk  was 
about  to  stoop  upon  the  heron.  These  tendencies 
were  confirmed  by  an  accident  which  followed  the 
death  of  the  empress  Isabella.  As  her  master  of  the 
horse,  it  was  Borja's  duty  to  attend  the  body  from 
Toledo  to  the  chapel-royal  of  Granada,  and  to  make 
oath  to  its  identity  ere  it  was  laid  in  the  grave.  But 
when  the  coffin  was  opened  and  the  cerements  drawn 
aside,  the  progress  of  decay  was  found  to  have  been 
so  rapid,  that  the  mild  and  lovely  face  of  Isabella 
could  no  longer  be  recognized  by  the  most  trusted  and 
the  most  faithful  of  her  servants.  His  conscience 
would  not  allow  him  to  swear  that  the  mass  of  cor- 
ruption thus  disclosed  was  the  remains  of  his  royal 
mistress,  but  only  that,  having  watched  day  and 
night  beside  it,  he  felt  convinced  that  it  could  be  no 
other  than  the  form  which  he  had  seen  enshrouded  at 
Toledo.  From  that  moment,  in  the  twenty-ninth 
year  of  his  prosperous  life,  he  resolved  to  spend  what 
remained  to  him  of  time  in  earnest  preparation  for 
eternity.  A  few  years  later,  the  death  of  his  beautiful 
and  excellent  wife  strengthened  his  purpose,  by  snap- 
ping the  dearest  tie  which  bound  him  to  the  world. 
Having  erected  a  Jesuits'  college  at  Gandia,  their  first 
establishment  of  that  kind  in  Europe,  and  having 
married  his  eldest  son  and  his  two  daughters,  he  put 
his  affairs  in  order,  and  retired  into  the  young  and 
still  struggling  society  of  Ignatius  Loyola.     In  the 


68  THE    CLOISTER   LIFE    OF 

year  1548,  the  thirty-eighth  of  his  age,  he  obtained 
the  emperor's  leave  to  make  his  son  fifth  duke  of 
Gandia,  and  he  himself  became  father  Francis  of  the 
company  of  Jesus. 

He  was  admitted  to  the  company,  and  received  ec- 
clesiastical tonsure  at  Rome,  from  whence,  to  escape 
a  cardinal's  hat,  he  soon  returned  to  Spain,  and  retired 
to  a  severe  course  of  theological  study,  in  a  hermitage 
near  Loyola,  the  Mecca  of  the  Jesuits.  Plenary  in- 
dulgence having  been  conceded  by  the  Pope  to  all  who 
should  hear  his  first  mass,  he  performed  that  rite,  and 
preached  his  first  sermon,  in  the  presence  of  a  vast 
concourse  in  the  open  air,  at  Vergara.  As  provincial 
of  Aragon  and  Andalusia,  he  afterwards  labored  a^  a 
preacher  and  teacher  in  many  of  the  cities  of  Spain  ; 
he  had  procured  and  superintended  the  foundation  of 
colleges  at  Alcala  and  Seville ;  and  he  was  now  en- 
gaged in  instituting  and  organizing  another  at  Pla- 
sencia. 

In  the  world,  Borja  had  been  the  favorite  and  trust- 
ed friend  of  most  of  his  royal  cousins  of  Austria  and 
Avis.  When  he  had  joined  the  society  of  Jesus,  the 
infant  Don  Luis  of  Portugal  for  some  time  enter- 
tained the  design  of  assuming  the  same  robe ;  and 
when  the  queen  Juana  lay  dying  at  Tordesillas,  it  was 
father  Borja  who  was  sent  by  the  princess-regent  to 
administer  the  last  consolations  of  religion,  and  who 
began  to  acquire  a  reputation  for  miraculous  powers, 
because  the  crazy  old  woman  gave  some  feeble  sign 
of  returning  reason,  as  she  came  face  to  face  with 
death.  Charles  himself  seems  to  have  regarded  him 
with  affection  as  strong  as  his  cold  nature  was  capable 
of  feeling.     It  can  have  been  with  no  ordinary  interest 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  69 

that  he  watched  the  career  of  the  man  whom  alone  he 
had  chosen  to  make  the  confidant  of  his  intended  ab- 
dication, and  who  had  unexpectedly  forestalled  him 
in  the  execution  of  the  scheme.  They  were  now  in 
circumstances  similar,  yet  different.  Both  had  volun- 
tarily descended  from  the  eminence  of  their  hereditary 
fortunes.  Broken  in  health  and  spirits,  the  emperor 
was  on  his  way  to  Yuste,  to  spend  the  evening  of  his 
days  in  repose.  The  duke,  on  the  other  hand,  in  the 
full  vigor  of  his  age,  had  entered  the  humblest  of  relig- 
ious orders,  to  begin  a  new  life  of  most  strenuous  toil. 
In  Spain,  many  a  stout  soldier  died  a  monk ;  his  own 
ancestor,  the  infant  Don  Pedro  of  Aragon,  had  closed 
a  life  of  camps  and  councils,  in  telling  his  beads 
amongst  the  Capuchins  of  Barcelona.*  But  it  was 
reserved  for  Borja  to  leave  the  high  road  of  ambition, 
in  life's  bright  noon,  for  a  thorny  path,  in  which  the 
severest  asceticism  was  united  with  the  closest  official 
drudgery,  and  in  which  there  was  no  rest  but  the 
grave. 

Having  learned  from  the  count  of  Oropesa  that  the 
emperor  had  been  frequently  inquiring  about  him, 
father  Francis  the  Sinner,  for  so  Borja  called  himself, 
arrived  at  Xarandilla  on  the  17th  of  December.  He 
was  attended  by  two  brothers  of  the  order,  father  Mar- 
cos, and  father  Bartolome  Bastamente.  The  latter, 
an  aged  priest,  who  had  been  secretary  to  cardinal 
Tavera,  was  known  to  fame  as  a  scholar  and  as  archi- 
tect of  the  noble  hospital  of  St.  John  Baptist,  at  To- 
ledo, a  structure  on  which  the  cardinal  archbishop  had 
so  lavished  his  wealth,  that  his  enemies  said  it  would 

*  ^urita,  Analesde  Aragon,  An.  1358,  Lib.  IX.  c.  18. 


70  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

certainly  procure  him  and  Bustamente  warm  places  in 
purgatory.*  The  emperor  received  Borja  with  a  cor- 
diality which  was  more  foreign  to  his  nature  than  his 
habits,  but  which,  on  this  occasion,  was  probably  sin- 
cere. Both  he  and  his  Jesuit  guest  had  withdrawn 
from  the  pomps  and  vanities  of  life  ;  but  custom  being 
stronger  than  reason  or  faith,  their  greeting  was  as 
ceremonious  as  if  it  had  been  exchanged  beneath  the 
canopy  of  state  at  Augsburg  or  Valladolid.  Not  only 
did  the  priest,  lapsing  into  the  ways  of  the  grandee, 
kneel  to  kiss  the  hand  of  the  prince,  but  he  even  in- 
sisted on  remaining  upon  his  knees  during  the  inter- 
view. Charles,  who  addressed  him  as  duke,  finally 
compelled  him  to  assume  a  less  humble  attitude,  only 
by  refusing  to  converse  with  him  until  he  should  have 
taken  a  chair  and  put  on  his  hat.f 

*  Salazar  de  Mendoqa  :  Chronica  del  Card.  Juan  de  Tavera,  4to,  To- 
ledo, 1603,  p.  310. 

t  In  this  portion  of  my  narrative,  I  have  followed  Eibadeneira  and 
Nieremberg  {Vidas  de  F.  Borja.  4to,  Madrid,  1592,  p.  93;  and  fol., 
Madrid,  1644,  p.  134),  who  have,  however,  fallen  into  an  error,  which 
the  MS.  of  Gonzalez  enables  me  to  correct.  Both  say  that  Borja  first 
visited  the  retired  emperor  at  Yuste,  and  Nieremberg  asserts  that  he 
came  from  Alcala  de  Henares ;  whereas  he  came  from  Plasencia,  and 
paid  his  visit  at  Xarandilla.  Gonzalez  disbelieves  their  account  of  the 
emperor's  desire  to  seduce  Borja  from  the  company,  and  of  what  passed 
at  the  interview,  but  assigns  no  reason  for  his  disbelief.  The  conversa- 
tion, as  reported  by  Ribadeneira,  appears  very  probable,  and  his  report  is 
so  circumstantial,  that  we  may  well  suppose  it  to  have  been  drawn  up 
either  from  Borja's  own  recital,  or  from  notes  found  amongst  his  pa- 
pers. In  the  letters  of  Quixada,  in  the  Gonzalez  MS.,  we  are  told  that 
Borja  was  admitted  to  long  audiences  of  the  emperor  on  the  17th,  21st, 
and  22d  of  December,  and  we  may  conjecture  that  he  likewise  saw  him 
on  the  18th,  19th,  and  20th,  days  on  which  the  mayordomo  did  not 
happen  to  be  writing  to  the  secretary  of  state.  Quixada  throws  no  light 
whatever  on  the  subject  of  their  conversations,  and  therefore  no  discredit 
on  Hibadcneira's  statement. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  71 

Borja  had  been  warned,  by  the  princess-regent,  say 
the  Jesuits,  that  the  emperor  intended  to  urge  him  to 
pass  from  the  company  to  the  order  of  St,  Jerome. 
He  therefore  anticipated  his  design,  by  asking  leave 
to  give  an  account  of  his  life  since  he  had  made  re- 
ligious profession,  and  of  the  reasons  which  had  de- 
cided his  choice  of  a  habit,  "  of  which  matters,"  said 
he,  "  I  will  speak  to  your  majesty  as  I  would  speak 
to  my  Maker,  who  knows  that  all  I  am  going  to  say 
is  true."  Leave  being  granted,  he  told,  at  great  length, 
how,  having  resolved  to  enter  a  monastic  order,  he 
had  prayed  and  caused  many  masses  to  be  said  for 
God's  guidance  in  making  his  election  ;  how,  at  first, 
he  inclined  to  the  rule  of  St.  Francis,  but  found  that, 
whenever  his  thoughts  went  in  that  direction,  he  was 
seized  with  an  unaccountable  melancholy ;  how  he 
turned  his  eyes  to  the  other  orders,  one  after  another, 
and  always  with  the  same  gloomy  result ;  how,  on 
the  contrary,  when,  last  of  all,  he  thought  of  the  com- 
pany of  Jesus,  the  Lord  had  filled  his  soul  with  peace 
and  joy  ;  how  it  frequently  happened,  in  the  great  or- 
ders, that  monks  arrived  at  higher  honor  in  this  life 
than  if  they  had  remained  in  the  world,  a  risk  which 
he  desired  by  all  means  to  avoid,  and  which  hardly 
existed  in  a  recent  and  humble  fraternity,  still  in  that 
furnace  of  trial  through  which  the  others  had  long  ago 
passed ;  how  the  company,  embracing  in  its  scheme 
an  active  as  well  as  a  contemplative  life,  provided  for 
the  spiritual  welfare  of  men  of  the  most  opposite  char- 
acters, and  of  each  man  in  the  various  stages  of  his 
intellectual  being ;  and  lastly,  how  he  had  submitted 
these  reasons  to  several  grave  and  holy  fathers  of  the 
other  orders,  and  had  received  their  approval  and  their 


72  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

blessing,  ere  he  took  the  vows  which  had  now  for  ten 
years  been  the  hope  and  the  consolation  of  his  life. 

The  emperor  listened  to  this  long  narrative  with  at- 
tention, and  expressed  his  satisfaction  at  hearing  his 
friend's  history  from  his  own  lips.  "  For,"  said  he, 
"  I  felt  great  surprise  when  I  received  at  Augsburg 
your  letters  from  Rome,  notifying  the  choice  which 
you  had  made  of  a  religious  brotherhood.  And  I  still 
think  that  a  man  of  your  weight  ought  to  have  en- 
tered an  order  which  had  been  approved  by  age,  rather 
than  this  new  society,  in  which  no  white  hairs  are 
found,  and  which  besides,  in  some  quarters,  bears  but 
an  indifferent  reputation."  To  this  Borja  replied,  that 
in  all  institutions,  even  in  Christianity  itself,  the  purest 
piety  and  the  noblest  zeal  were  to  be  looked  for  near 
the  source ;  that  had  he  known  of  any  evil  in  the  com- 
pany, he  would  never  have  joined,  or  would  already 
have  left  it ;  and  that  in  respect  of  white  hairs,  though 
it  wfas  hard  to  expect  that  the  children  should  be  old 
while  the  parent  was  still  young,  even  these  were  not 
wanting,  as  might  be  seen  in  his  companion,  the 
father  Bustamente.  That  ecclesiastic,  who  had  be- 
gun his  novitiate  at  the  ripe  age  of  sixty,  was  accord- 
ingly called  into  the  presence.  The  emperor  at  once 
recognized  him  as  a  priest  who  had  been  sent  to  his 
court  at  Naples,  soon  after  the  campaign  of  Tunis, 
charged  with  an  important  mission  by  cardinal  Ta- 
vera,  primate  and  governor  of  Spain. 

Three  hours  of  discourse  with  these  able,  earnest, 
and  practised  champions  of  Jesuitism  had  some  effect 
even  upon  a  mind  so  slow  to  be  convinced  as  that 
of  Charles.  He  hated  innovation  with  the  hatred  of 
a  king,  a  devotee,  and  an  old  man  ;  and  having  fought 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLE3    THE    FIFTH.  73 

for  forty  years  a  losing  battle  with  the  terrible  monk 
of  Saxony,  he  looked  with  suspicion  even  upon  the 
great  orthodox  movement  led  by  the  soldier  of  Gui- 
puzcoa.  The  infant  company,  although,  or  perhaps 
because,  in  favor  of  the  Vatican,  had  gained  no  foot- 
ing at  the  imperial  court;  and,  as  its  fame  grew,  the 
prelates  around  the  throne,  sons  or  friends  of  the  an- 
cient orders,  were  more  likely  to  remind  their  master 
how  its  general  had  once  been  admonished  by  the 
holy  office  of  Toledo,  than  to  dwell  on  his  piety  and 
eloquence,  or  the  splendid  success  of  his  missions  in 
the  East.  In  Bobadilla,  one  of  the  first  followers  of 
Loyola,  the  emperor  had  seen  something  of  the  fiery 
zeal  of  the  new  society  ;  he  had  admired  him  on  the 
field  of  Muhlberg,  severely  wounded,  yet  persisting  in 
carrying  temporal  and  spiritual  aid  to  the  wounded 
and  dying;  but  on  the  publication  of  the  unfortunate 
Interim,  meant  to  soothe^  but  active  only  to  inflame 
the  hate  of  Catholics  and  Reformers,  he  had  been 
compelled  to  banish  this  same  good  Samaritan  from 
the  empire  for  his  virulent  attacks  upon  the  new 
decree.*  This  unexpected  opposition  strengthened 
Charles's  natural  dislike  to  the  company  ;  and  he  after- 
wards rewarded  with  a  colonial  mitre  the  blustering 
Dominican  Cano,  who  announced  from  the  pulpits  of 
Castille  the  strange  tidings  that  the  Jesuits  were  the 
precursors  of  Antichrist  foretold  in  the  Apocalypse. 
His  new  confessor,  Fray  Juan  de  Regia,  with  monkish 
subserviency  and  rancor,  espoused  the  same  cause, 
and  openly  spoke  of  the  company  as  an  apt  instru- 


t  Nieremherg :   Vidas  de  Tg.  Loyola  y  otros  Sijos  de  la  Compania,  fol., 
Madrid,  1645,  pp.  649,  650. 
7 


74  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

ment  of  Satan  or  the  great  Turk.*  Latterly,  however, 
the  vehement  old  pope,  having  frowned  on  the  order 
as  a  thing  of  Spain  and  perdition,  may  perhaps  have 
prepared  his  imperial  rival  to  view  it  with  a  more  fa- 
vorable eye.  His  prejudices,  in  fact,  at  last  yielded 
to  the  earnest  and  temperate  reasonings  of  his  ancient 
servant  and  brother-in-arms  ;  and  his  feelings  towards 
the  Jesuits  leaned  from  that  time  to  approval  and 
friendly  regard. 

The  talk  of  the  emperor  and  his  guest  sometimes 
reverted  to  old  days.  "  Do  you  remember,"  said 
Charles,  "  how  I  told  you,  in  1542,  at  Mon^on,  dur- 
ing the  holding  of  the  Cortes  of  Aragon,  of  my  inten- 
tion of  abdicating  the  throne  ?  I  spoke  of  it  to  but 
one  person  besides."  The  Jesuit  replied  that  he  had 
kept  the  secret  truly,  but  that  now  he  hoped  he  might 
mention  the  mark  of  confidence  with  which  he  had 
been  honored.  "  Yes,"  saici  Charles  ;  "  now  that  the 
thing  is  done,  you  may  say  what  you  will." 

.After  a  visit  of  five  days  at  Xarandilla,  Borja  took 
his  leave  and  returned  to  Plasencia.  The  emperor 
appears  usually  to  give  him  audience  alone,  for  no 
part  of  their  conversation  was  reported  either  by  the 
secretary  or  by  the  mayordomo.  Nor  is  any  notice 
taken  of  Borja  in  their  correspondence,  beyond  the 
bare  mention  of  his  arrival  and  departure,  and  of  the 
emperor's  remark,  that  "  the  duke  was  much  changed 
since  he  first  knew  him  as  marquis  of  Lombay." 

Of  the  emperor's  few  intimate  friends  it  happened 
that  one  other,  Don  Luis  de  Avila  y  Zuniga,  was  now 
his  neighbor  in  Estremadura.     This  shrewd  politician, 

*  Nieremberg :  Vida  de  F.  Borja,  p.  1 73. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  75 

lively  writer,  and  crafty  courtier,  a  very  different  per- 
sonage from  father  Francis  the  Sinner,  was  no  less 
welcome  at  Xarandilla.  He  was  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  of  that  remarkable  band  of  soldier-states- 
men who  shed  a  lustre  round  the  throne  of  the  Span- 
ish emperor  and  maintained  the  honor  of  the  Spanish 
name  for  the  greater  part  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
At  the  holy  see,  under  Pius  the  Fourth  and  Paul  the 
Fourth,  he  had  twice  represented  his  master,  and  had 
attempted  to  urge  on  the  lagging  deliberations  of  the 
council  of  Trent;  he  had  served  with  credit  at  Tunis; 
and  he  commanded  the  imperial  cavalry  during  the 
campaigns  of  1546  and  1547  in  Germany,  and  at  the 
siege  of  Metz.  These  services  obtained  for  him  the 
post  of  chamberlain,  and  the  emperor's  full  confidence ; 
and  he  was  also  made  grand  commander,  or  chief 
member  after  the  sovereign,  of  the  order  of  Alcantara. 
With  these  honors,  and  six  skulls  of  the  virgins  of 
Cologne,  presented  to  him  by  the  grateful  elector,  he 
returned  to  Plasencia,  to  share  the  honors  with  the 
wealthy  heiress  of  Fadrique  de  Zuniga,  marquis  of 
Mirabel,  and  to  place  the  skulls  in  the  rich  Zuniga 
chapel  in  the  church  of  San  Vicente.*  He  was  now 
living  in  laurelled  and  lettered  ease  in  the  fine  palace 
of  the  Mirabels,  which  is  still  one  of  the  chief  archi- 
tectural ornaments  of  king  Alonso's  pleasant  city. 

By  his  commentaries,  on  the  war  of  the  emperor 
with  the  Protestants  of  Germany,  Avila  earned  a  high 
rank  amongst  the  historians  of  his  time.  His  Castil- 
lian  was  pure  and  idiomatic  ;  and  his  style,  for  clear- 
ness and  rapidity,  was  compared  by  his  admirers  to 

•  A.  F.  Fernandez  :  Historia  de  Plasencia,  fol.,  Madrid,  1627,  p.  113. 


76  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

that  of  Cassar.  Besides  these  literary  merits,  the  book, 
from  the  intimate  relation  existing  between  the  author 
and  the  chief  actor  in  the  story,  was  invested  with 
something  of  an  official  authority.  It  was  accepted 
as  a  record,  not  merely  of  what  the  green-cross  knight 
had  seen,  but  of  what  the  Catholic  emperor  wished  to 
be  believed.  At  this  time,  therefore,  it  had  already 
passed  through  several  editions,*  and  had  been  trans- 
lated into  Latin,!  Flemish,:):  and  English,  §  into  Ital- 
ian II  by  the  author  himself,  and  twice  into  French,  at 
Antwerp  ^  and  at  Paris.**  In  Germany  it  had  cre- 
ated a  great  sensation  ;  the  duke  of  Bavaria  and  the 
count-palatine  were  enraged  beyond  measure  at  the 
free  handling  displayed  in  their  portraits  by  this  Span- 
ish master;  the  diet  of  Passau  presented  a  formal  re- 
monstrance to  the  emperor  against  the  libels  of  his 
chamberlain ;  and  Albert,  margrave  of  Brandenburg, 
who  by  changing  sides  during  the  war  had  peculiarly 
exposed  himself  to  castigation,  proposed  that  the 
author  should  maintain  the  credit  of  his  pen  by  the 
prowess  of  his  sword,  f  f  The  emperor,  however,  who 
approved  the  history  and  loved  the  historian,  inter- 
posed to  soothe  the  electors,  cajole  the  diet,  and  forbid 

*  It  appeared,  says  Nic  Antonio,  first  in  Spain  (without  mentioning 
any  town)  in  1546,  and  again  in  1547. 

t  By  Van  Male.     See  p.  53. 

$  In  8vo  (Steels) :  Antwerp,  1550. 

§  Tlie  Coinentaries  of  Don  Lewes  de  Avila  and  Suniga,  great  Master  of 
Acanter,  which  treateth  of  the  great  wars  in  Germanie,  made  hy  Charles  the 
Fijlh,  maxime  Emperoure  of  Home,  &c ,  sm.  8vo,  London,  1555  (Black 
letter).     Tlie  translator  was  John  Wilkinson. 

II  In  12mo,  Venice,  1549  T  By  Mat.  Vaulchier,  8vo,  1550. 

**  By  G.  Boilleau  de  Buillon.  1550. 

tt  R.  Ascham  :  Discourse  of  Germany  and  the  Emperor  Charles  his 
Court,  4to,  London  (Black  letter),  N.  D.  fol.  14. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  77 

the  duel ;  and  a  duke  of  Brunswick,  some  years  after, 
did  the  obnoxious  volume  the  honor  of  translating  it 
into  German.  Pleased  with  his  success,  the  author 
was  probably  employing  his  leisure  at  PJasencia  in 
composing  those  commentaries  on  the  war  in  Africa 
which,  though  perused  and  praised  by  Sepulveda, 
have  not  yet  been  given  to  the  press. 

His  first  visit  to  the  emperor  was  paid  on  the  21st 
of  January,  1557.  He  spent  the  night  at  Xarandilla, 
and  returned  home  next  day.  Some  weeks  before, 
on  the  6th  of  December,  his  father-in-law,  the  marquis 
of  JNIirabel,  had  likewise  been  graciously  received. 
Early  in  January,  the  archbishop  of  Toledo  and  the 
bishop  of  Plasencia  sent  excuses  for  not  paying  their 
respects,  both  prelates  pleading  the  infirm  state  of 
their  health.  The  primate  was  the  cardinal  Juan 
Martinez  Siliceo,  to  whom,  eleven  years  before,  the 
emperor  had  given  that  splendid  mitre,  not  quite  in 
accordance,  it  was  said,  with  his  own  wish,  but  at  the 
request  of  his  son  Philip,  whose  tutor  the  fortunate 
•ardinal  had  been.  The  bishop  of  Plasencia  was 
Don  Gutierre  de  Carvajai,  a  magnificent  prelate,  who 
shared  the  emperor's  tastes  and  gout.  He  was  the 
builder  of  the  fine  Gothic  chapel  attached  to  the 
church  of  St.  Andrew  at  Madrid  ;  and  his  coat  of 
arras,  or,  with  bend  sable,  commemorated  on  wall  or 
portal  his  various  architectural  embellishments  in  all 
parts  of  his  diocese.*  Charles  received  the  excuses 
of  both  piplates  with  perfect  good  humor,  entreating 
them  not  to  put  themselves  to  any  inconvenience  on 


*  P.  de  Salazar :  Cliwnica  de  el  Card.  D.  Juan  de  Tavera,  4to,  Tole- 
do, 1603,  p.  355.     A.  Fernandez  :  Ilistoria  de  Plasencia,  p.  191. 

7* 


78  TUK    CLOISTER    LIFE    Of 

his  account,  and  remarking  to  Quixada,  that  neither 
of  them  were  persons  much  to  his  liking. 

Until  the  close  of  the  year  1556,  the  emperor  had 
enjoyed  what  was  for  him  remarkably  good  health 
and  spirits.  In  the  latter  weeks  of  the  year  he  had 
been  able  to  devote  two  hours  a  day  to  his  accounts, 
and  to  reckoning  with  Luis  Quixada  the  sums  due 
to  the  servants  whom  he  was  about  to  discharge. 
"When  the  weather  was  fine,  he  used  to  go  out  with 
his  fowling-piece,  and  even  walked  at  a  tolerably  brisk 
pace.  His  chief  annoyance  was  the  state  of  his  fin- 
gers, whic'h  were  so  much  swollen  and  disabled  by 
gout,  that  he  remarked,  on  receiving  from  the  duchess 
of  Frias  a  present  of  a  chased  silver  saucepan  and  a 
packet  of  perfumed  gloves,  "  If  she  sends  gloves,  she 
had  better  also  send  hands  to  wear  them  on."  But 
on  the  27th  and  28th  of  December,  he  felt  several 
twinges  of  gout  in  his  knees  and  shoulders,  and  kept 
his  bed  for  a  week,  lying  in  considerable  pain,  and 
wrapped  in  one  of  his  eider-down  robes,  beneath  a 
thick  quilted  covering.  For  some  days  he  was  en^ 
tirely  deprived  of  the  use  of  his  right  arm,  and  could 
neither  raise  a  cup  to  his  lips,  nor  wipe  his  mouth. 
Nevertheless,  his  appetite  continued  keen  ;  and  he  one 
day  paid  the  wife  of  Quixada  the  compliment  of  com- 
mitting an  excess  upon  sausages  and  olives,  which 
the  good  lady  had  sent  to  him  from  Villagarcia.  As 
the  attack  subsided,  he  complained  of  a  sore  throat, 
which  made  it  difficult  for  him  to  swallow,^n  incon- 
venience which  the  mayordomo  did  not  much  deplore, 
saying  sententiously,  "  Shut  your  mouth,  and  the 
gout  will  get  well."  * 

•  "  La  gota  se  cura  tapando  la  boca." 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  79 

Barley-water,  with  yolks  of  eggs,  formed  his  frequent 
refreshment  in  his  illness,  and  his  medicine  was  given 
in  the  shape  of  pills  and  senna-wine.  This  beverage 
was  one  which  he  had  long  used,  and  about  the  con- 
coction of  which  very  precise  directions  had  been 
transmitted  in  the  autumn,  from  Flanders,  to  the 
secretary  of  state.  A  quantity  of  the  "  best  senna- 
leaves  of  Alexandria  "  were  to  be  steeped,  in  the  pro- 
portion of  about  a  pound  to  a  gallon,  in  a  jar  of  good 
light  wine,  for  three  or  four  months;  the  liquor  was 
then  to  be  poured  off  into  a  fresh  jar;  and  after  stand- 
ing for  a  year,  it  was  fit  for  use.  The  white  wine  of 
Yepes  was  mentioned  as  the  best  for  the  purpose ; 
but  the  selection  was  left  to  the  general  of  the  Jero- 
mites,  an  order  famous  for  its  choice  cellars.  The  em- 
peror asked  likewise  for  manna,  and  there  being  none 
amongst  the  doctor's  stores,  he  ordered  some  to  be  pro- 
cured from  Naples,  observing,  at  the  same  time,  that 
no  supply  had  been  sent  since  his  abdication,  —  the 
single  trivial  incident  and  remark  which  lend  support 
to  the  common  story  that  the  change  in  his  position 
had  made  a  change  in  the  attention  with  which  he 
was  treated. 

On  the  6th  of  January,  though  still  in  bed,  he  was 
able  to  see  Lorenzo  Pires,  the  Portuguose  envoy,  on 
the  affairs  of  the  infanta ;  when  he  also  expressed  his 
hearty  approval  of  king  John's  choice  of  the  good 
Aleixo  de  Meneses  as  governor  of  their  grandson,  Don 
Sebastian.*  On  the  7th  he  got  up,  complaining  only 
at  intervals  of  a  heat  in  his  legs,  which  were  relieved 
by  being  bathed  with  vinegar  and  water.     In  spite  of 

*  Menezes :  Chronica,  p.  68. 


80 


THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


his  omelettes  of  sardines,  and  the  beer  which  no  med- 
ical warnings  could  induce  him  to  forego,  he  was 
soon  restored  to  his  usual  health. 

Despatches  now  came  in  from  Italy,  announcing 
the  truce  of  forty  days,  which  the  duke  of  Alba  had 
made  with  the  pope  and  his  nephew,  after  driving  the 
papal  troops  out  of  the  town  and  citadel  of  Ostia. 
The  emperor  was  very  angry  that  he  had  not  pushed 
on  to  Rome,  and  would  not  listen  to  the  conditions 
of  the  truce,  but  kept  muttering  between  his  teeth  his 
fears  of  the  approach  of  the  French  from  Piedmont. 
He  afterwards  wrote  to  the  king,  expressing  the  great- 
est displeasure  at  the  conduct  of  Alba,  who,  he  feared, 
had  suffered  himself  to  be  bribed  by  the  concession  of 
certain  patronage  enjoyed  by  the  pope  in  the  duke's 
marquisate  of  Coria.  The  conditions  of  the  truce 
despatched  to  Flanders  by  Alba  were  not  ratified  by 
the  king,  and  the  war  recommenced  early  in  1557. 

Some  days  later,  on  the  31st  of  January,  the  em- 
peror addressed  a  very  earnest  and  anxious  letter  to 
the  princess-regent  on  the  alarming  aspect  of  affairs 
both  in  Flanders  and  the  Mediterranean,  urging  her 
to  use  all  diligence  in  raising  men  and  money  to 
carry  on  the  wars,  and  especially  to  provide  for  the 
defence  of  Oran,  which  was  then  threatened  by  the 
Moors.  "  If  Oran  be  lost,"  he  wrote,  "  I  hope  I  shall 
not  be  in  Spain  or  the  Indies,  but  in  some  place 
where  I  shall  not  hear  of  so  great  an  affront  to  the 
king,  and  disaster  to  these  realms."  On  the  2d  of 
February,  he  again  entreated  the  princess  to  keep  a 
watchful  eye  on  the  frontiers  of  Navarre,  and  re- 
marked that  it  was  a  pity  the  king  should  have  or- 
dered the  duke  of  Alburquerque  to  England  at  a  time 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  81 

when  the  probable  movements  of  the  French  forces 
rendered  his  presence  of  so  much  importance  in  that 
viceroyalty.  In  consequence  of  this  remonstrance,  the 
duke  was  suffered  to  remain  at  Pamplona,  to  foil  any 
attempts  at  violent  resumption  of  the  kingdom  by  the 
court  of  Pau. 

Meanwhile  the  long-delayed  buildings  at  Yuste 
had  almost  arrived  at  a  conclusion.  Their  slow  prog- 
ress had  caused  the  emperor  repeated  disappoint- 
ments. So  far  back  as  the  16th  of  December  he  was 
so  confident  of  being  able  to  quit  Xarandilla,  that  the 
post  was  detained  beyond  the  usual  time,  that  the  re- 
moval to  the  convent  might  be  announced  at  Yalla- 
dolid.  Hi#  departure  was  still  further  postponed  by 
his  illness ;  and  the  fathers  of  Yuste  began  to  despair 
of  his  ever  coming  to  them  at  all.  On  the  21st  of 
January,  a  remittance  of  money  arriving  from  court, 
Quixada  began  to  pay  the  servants  their  wages;  and 
on  the  23d,  he  went  over  to  Yuste  to  make  a  final 
inspection,  and  to  look  for  a  house  for  himself  in  the 
village  of  Qnacos.  On  the  25th,  jNIonsieur  d'Aubre- 
mont,  one  of  the  chamberlains,  took  his  leave  of  the 
emperor,  who  bade  him  farewell  very  graciously,  and 
presented  him  with  letters  to  the  king,  and  set  forth 
on  his  return  to  Flanders,  with  his  private  train  of 
twelve  servants.  On  the  26th,  all  claims  against  the 
privy  purse  were  settled,  and  by  the  end  of  the  month 
the  new  household  was  definitely  formed,  on  a  re- 
duced scale.  The  emperor  at  first  wished  to  discharge 
many  more  of  his  followers  than  Quixada  thought 
could  be  dispensed  with  ;  and  it  was  finally  resolved 
to  send  back  ninety-eight  to  Flanders  free  of  cost, 
and  to  transfer  about  fifty-two  to  Yuste.     The  lieu- 


82 


THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


tenant  and  his  halberdiers  were  dismissed,  and  also 
the  alguazils,  with  the  alcalde  Durango,  to  whom  the 
emperor  presented  the  horses  for  which  he  had  no 
further  use.  Thirty  mules  were  sent  away  to  Valla- 
dolid ;  and  eight  mules,  a  small  one-eyed  horse,  two 
litters,  and  a  hand-chair,  were  reserved  for  the  reduced 
stable  establishment  of  the  emperor. 

All  was  ready  at  Xarandilla  for  departure  on  the 
1st  of  February.  But  at  the  last  moment  it  was 
found  that  the  friars,  who  had  undertaken  to  lay  in 
provisions  for  the  first  day's  consumption  at  Yuste, 
had  provided  nothing  at  all.  The  business,  therefore, 
devolved  on  Quixada,  and  the  removal  was  post- 
poned for  two  days  more.  After  dinner%on  the  3d, 
the  emperor  received  all  the  servants  who  were  going 
away,  saying  a  kind  word  to  each  as  he  was  present- 
ed by  the  mayordomo.  "  His  majesty,"  wrote  Quixa- 
da, "was  in  excellent  health  and  spirits,  which  was 
more  than  could  be  said  of  the  poor  people  whom  he 
was  dismissing."  All  of  them,  he  said,  had  received 
letters  of  recommendation ;  but  it  was  a  sad  sight, 
this  breaking  up  of  so  old  a  company  of  retainers ; 
and  he  hoped  the  secretary  of  state  would  do  what  he 
could  for  those  who  went  to  Valladolid,  not  forgetting 
the  others  who  remained  in  Estremadura.  At  three 
o'clock  the  emperor  was  placed  in  his  litter,  and  the 
count  ofOropesa  and  the  attendants  mounted  their 
horses ;  and,  crossing  the  leafless  forest,  in  two  hours 
the  cavalcade  halted  at  the  gates  of  Yuste. 

There  the  prior  was  waiting  to  receive  his  imperial 
guest,  who,  on  alighting,  was  placed  in  a  chair  and 
carried  to  the  door  of  the  church.  At  the  threshold 
he  was  met  by  the  whole  brotherhood  in  procession, 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  83 

chanting  the  Te  Deum  to  the  music  of  the  organ. 
The  altars  and  the  aisle  were  brilliantly  lighted  up 
with  tapers,  and  decked  with  their  richest  frontals, 
hangings,  and  plate.  Borne  through  the  pomp  to  the 
steps  of  the  high  altar,  Charles  knelt  down  and  re- 
turned thanks  to  God  for  the  happy  termination  of 
his  journey,  and  joined  in  the  vesper  service  of  the 
feast  of  St.  Bias.  This  ended,  the  prior  stepped  for- 
ward with  a  congratulatory  speech,  in  which,  to  the 
scandal  of  the  courtiers,  he  addressed  the  emperor  as 
"  your  paternity,"  until  some  friar,  with  more  presence 
of  mind  and  etiquette,  whispered  that  the  proper  style 
was  "  majesty."  The  orator  next  presented  his  friars 
to  their  new  brother,  each  kissing  his  hand  and  re- 
ceiving his  fraternal  embrace.  During  this  ceremony, 
the  retiring  retainers,  who  had  all  of  them  attended 
their  master  to  Iro  journey's  close,  stood  round,  ex- 
pressing their  emotion  by  tears  and  lamentations, 
which  were  still  heard,  late  in  the  evening,  round  the 
gate.  Attended  by  Oropesa  and  conducted  by  the 
prior,  the  emperor  then  made  an  inspection  of  the 
convent,  and  finally  retired  to  sup  in  his  new  home, 
and  enjoy  the  repose  which  had  so  long  been  the 
dream  of  his  life. 


84 


THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE  MONASTERY  OF  ST.  JEROME  OF  YUSTE. 

The  Spanish  order  of  St.  Jerome  was  an  offshoot 
from  the  great  Italian  order  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi. 
St.  Bridget,  a  princess  of  Sweden,  who,  anticipating 
queen  Christina  by  three  centuries,  had  taken  up  her 
abode  at  Rome,  foretold  that  there  would  soon  arise 
in  Spain  a  society  of  recluses  to  tread  in  the  footsteps 
of  the  great  doctor  of  Bethlehem.  *rhe  very  next 
year,  in  1374,  two  hermits  who  ^d  been  living  a 
Franciscan  life  in  the  mountains  otToledo  presented 
themselves  at  Avignon,  and,  kneeling  at  the  feet  of 
Gregory  the  Eleventh,  obtained  the  institution  of  the 
order  of  St.  Jerome.  The  first  monastery,  San  Barto- 
lome  of  Lupiana,  was  built  by  the  hands  of  the  first 
prior  and  his  monks,  on  the  north  side  of  a  bleak  hill, 
near  Guadalaxara,  in  Old  Castille.  From  this  high- 
land nest,  the  new  religion  spread  its  austere  swarms 
far  and  wide  over  Spain.  Its  houses,  humble  indeed 
at  first,  arose  in  the  Vega  of  Toledo,  and  in  the  pine- 
forest  of  Guisando;  a  devout  duke  of  Gandia  planted 
another  in  the  better  land  of  Valencia ;  and  in  pastoral 
Estremadura,  ere  the  fourteenth  century  closed,  the 
shrine  of  Our  Lady  of  Guadalupe  —  which  rivalled 
Loretto  itself  in  miracles,  in  pilgrims,  and  in  wealth 
—  was  committed  to  the  keeping  of  a  colony  from 
Lupiana.  Each  year  the  new  habit  —  a  white  wool- 
len tunic,  girt  with  leather,  and  a  brown  woollen  scap- 


THE   EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  85 

ulary  and  mantle,  of  which  the  fashion  and  material 
had  been  revealed  to  St.  Bridget,  and  consecrated  by 
the  use  of  St.  Jerome  and  of  the  blessed  Mary  herself 
—  became  more  familiar  and  more  favored  in  city  and 
hamlet,  among  the  motley  liveries  of  the  church.  At 
Madrid  and  Segovia,  at  Seville  and  Valladolid,  stately 
cloisters  and  noble  churches,  in  the  beautiful  pointed 
architecture  of  the  fifteenth  century,  were  built  for  St. 
Jerome  and  his  flock.  A  Jeromite  monastery  was  one 
of  the  first  works  undertaken  at  Granada  by  the  Cath- 
olic conquerors,  and  a  Jeromite  friar  was  enthroned 
as  the  first  archbishop  in  the  purified  mosque.  The 
completion  of  the  superb  cloister  of  St.  Engracia,  be- 
gun by  Ferdinand  for  the  Jeromites  of  Zaragoza,  was 
the  first  architectural  work  of  Charles  the  Fifth  on 
taking  possession  of  his  Spanish  kingdoms.  On  the 
Tagus,  the  Jeromite  convent  of  Belem,  the  burial- 
place  of  the  royal  line  of  Avis,  and  a  miracle  of  jewel- 
lery in  stone,  is  one  of  the  few  surviving  glories  of  Don 
Emanuel.  The  town-like  vastness  of  Guadalupe,  its 
fortifications,  treasure-tower,  and  cellars,  its  orange- 
gardens,  and  cedar-groves,  and  its  princely  domains, 
astonished  a  far-travelled  and  somewhat  cynical  mag- 
nifico  of  Venice*  into  a  tribute  of  hearty  admiration. 
In  Spain  its  wealth  and  importance  have  passed  into 
a  proverb,  which  thus  pointed  out  the  path  of  prefer- 
ment : 

He  who  is  a  count,  and  to  be  a  duke  aspires, 

Let  him  straight  to  Guadalupe,  and  sing  among  the  friars-t 

*  Navagiero:   Vmggio  fatto  in  Spagna,  sm.  8vo,  Vinegia,  1563,  pp. 
11,  12. 

t  "  Quien  es  conde,  y  dessea  ser  duque, 

Metase  fraile  en  Guadalupe." 
Hern  Nunez:  Refranes,  fol.,  Salamanca,  1555,  fol.  106. 
8 


86  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

The  order  reached  the  climax  of  its  greatness  when  its 
monks  were  installed  by  Philip  the  Second  in  the 
palace  convent  of  San  Lorenzo  of  the  Escorial. 

The  Escorial  and  Guadalupe,  his  houses,  lands, 
and  flocks,  were  the  best  endowments  of  the  Jeromite. 
He  could  rarely  boast  of  such  eloquence  and  learning 
as  sometimes  lay  beneath  the  white  robe  of  the  Do- 
minican preacher,  or  the  inky  cloak  of  the  bookish  Ben- 
edictine. In  his  schools,  he  was  taught  no  philosophy 
but  that  of  Thomas  Aquinas  ;  and  even  if  he  did  not 
wholly  lack  Latin,  he  was  altogether  guiltless  of  that 
Cicero- worship  for  which  St.  Jerome,  in  his  memora- 
ble dream,  was  flogged  by  seraphim  before  the  judg- 
ment-seat of  Heaven.  But  to  none  of  his  rivals,  white, 
black,  or  gray,  did  he  yield  in  the  rigor  of  his  religious 
observance,  in  the  splendor  of  his  services,  in  the  mu- 
nificence of  his  alms,  and  in  the  abundant  hospitality 
of  his  table.  In  his  convents,  eight  hours  always,  and 
on  days  of  festival  twelve  hours,  out  of  the  twenty- 
four,  were  devoted  to  sacred  offices  ;  and  the  prior  of 
the  Escorial  challenged  comparison  between  the  ordi- 
nary service  of  his  church  and  the  holyday  pomp  of 
the  greatest  cathedrals  of  Spain.  In  houses  like 
Guadalupe,  large  hospitals  were  maintained  for  the 
sick,  vast  quantities  of  food  were  daily  dispensed  to 
the  poor,  and  the  refectory  boards  were  spread,  some- 
times as  often  as  seven  times  a  day,  for  the  guests  of 
all  ranks  who  canrfe  in  crowds  to  dine  with  St.  Jerome. 
The  order  early  planted  its  standard  in  the  Vera  of 
Plasencia ;  choosing  for  its  camp  one  of  the  sweet- 
est spots  of  the  sweet  valley.  Yuste  stands  on  its 
northern  side,  and  near  its  eastern  end,  about  two 
leagues  west  of  Xarandilla,  and  seven  leagues  east  of 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  87 

Plasencia.  The  site  is  a  piece  of  somewhat  level 
ground,  on  the  lower  slope  of  the  mountain,  which  is 
clothed,  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach,  with  woods  of 
venerable  oak  and  chestnut.  About  an  English  mile 
to  the  south,  and  lower  down  the  hill,  the  village  of 
Quacos  nestles  unseen  amongst  its  orchards  and  mul- 
berry gardens.  The  monastery  owes  its  name,  not  to 
a  saint,  but  to  a  streamlet  *  which  descends  from  the 
sierra  behind  its  walls,  and  its  origin  to  the  piety  of 
one  Sancho  Martin  of  Quacos,  who  granted,  in  1402, 
a  tract  of  forest  land  to  two  hermits  from  Plasencia. 
Here  these  holy  men  built  their  cells,  and  planted  an 
orchard ;  and  obtained,  in  1408,  by  the  favor  of  the 
infant  Don  Fernando,  a  bull,  authorizing  them  to 
found  a  religious  house  of  the  order  of  St.  Jerome. 
In  spite,  however,  of  this  authority,  while  their  works 
were  still  in  progress,  the  friars  of  a  neighboring  con- 
vent, armed  with  an  order  from  the  bishop  of  Plasen- 
cia, set  upon  them,  and  dispossessed  them  of  their 
land  and  unfinished  walls,  an  act  of  violence,  against 
which  the  Jeromites  appealed  to  the  archbishop  of 
Santiago.  The  judgment  of  the  primate  being  given 
in  their  favor,  they  next  applied  for  aid  to  their  neigh- 
bor, Garci  Alvarez  de  Toledo,  lord  of  Oropesa,  who 
accordingly  came  forth  from  his  castle  of  Xarandilla, 
with  his  azure  and  argent  banner,  and  drove  out  the 
intruders.  Nor  was  it  only  with  the  strong  hand  that 
this  noble  protected  the  new  community ;  for  at  the 
chapter  of  St.  Jerome,   held   at    Guadalupe  in   141^ 

*  Siguen<;a:  Hist,  de  S.  Geronimo,  Parte  II.  p.  191.  Some  Spanish 
writers,  and  almost  all  foreign  writers,  have  called  it  San  Yuste,  or  St. 
Just,  or  St.  Justus,  as  if  the  place  had  been  called  after  one  of  the  three 
saints  of  that  name,  of  Alcala,  Lyons,  or  Canterbury. 


oS  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

their  house  would  not  have  been  received  into  the  or- 
der, but  for  his  generosity  in  guaranteeing  a  revenue 
sufficient  for  the  maintenance  of  a  prior  and  twelve 
brethren,  under  a  rule  in  which  mendicancy  was  for- 
bidden. The  buildings  were  also  erected  mainly  at 
his  cost,  and  his  subsequent  benefactions  were  mu- 
nificent and  many.  He  was  therefore  constituted,  by 
the  grateful  monks,  protector  of  the  convent,  and  the 
distinction  became  hereditary  in  his  descendants,  the 
counts  of  Oropesa. 

These  early  struggles  past,  the  Jeromites  of  Yuste 
grew  and  prospered.  Gifts  and  bequests  were  the 
chief  events  in  their  peaceful  annals.  They  became 
patrons  of  chapelries  and  hermitages ;  they  made  them 
orchards  and  olive-groves;  and  their  corn  and  wine 
increased.  The  hostel,  dispensary,  and  other  offices 
of  their  convent,  were  patterns  of  monastic  comfort 
and  order  ;  and  in  due  time  they  built  a  new  church, 
a  simple,  solid,  and  spacious  structure,  in  the  pointed 
style.  A  few  years  before  the  emperor  came  to  dwell 
amongst  them,  they  had  added  to  their  small  antique 
cloister  a  new  quadrangle  of  stately  proportions,  and 
of  the  elegant  classical  architecture  which  Berruguete 
had  recently  introduced  into  Castille. 

Although  more  remarkable  for  the  natural  beauty 
which  smiled  around  its  walls,  than  for  any  growth  of 
spiritual  grace  within  them,  Yuste  did  not  fail  to 
boast  of  its  worthies.  Early  in  the  sixteenth  century 
one  of  its  sons,  Fray  Pedro  de  Bejar,  was  chosen  gf'n- 
eral  of  the  order,  and  was  remarkable  for  the  vigor  of 
his  administration  and  the  boldness  and  efficacy  of 
his  reforms.  The  prior  Geronimo  de  Plasencia,  a  scion 
of  the  great  house  of  Zuiiiga,  was  cited  as  a  model  of 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  89 

austere  and  active  holiness.  The  lay  brother  Melchor 
de  Yepes,  after  twice  deserting  the  convent  to  be- 
come a  soldier,  being  crippled  in  felling  a  huge  chest- 
nut tree  in  the  forest,  became  for  the  remainder  of 
his  days  a  pattern  of  bedridden  patience  and  piety. 
Fray  Juan  de  Xeres,  an  old  soldier  of  the  great  cap- 
tain, was  distinguished  by  the  gift  of  second-sight, 
and  was  nursed  upon  his  death-bed  by  the  eleven 
thousand  virgins.  Still  more  favored  was  Fray  Rod- 
rigo  de  Ca^eres,  for  the  blessed  Mary  herself,  in  an- 
swer to  his  repeated  prayers,  came  down  in  visible 
beauty  and  glory,  and  received  his  spirit  on  the  eve  of 
the  feast  of  her  assumption.  The  pulpit  popularity  of 
the  prior,  Diego  de  San  Geronimo,  a  son  of  the  old 
Castillian  line  of  Tovar,  was  long  remembered  in  the 
Vera,  in  the  names  of  a  road  leading  to  Garganta  la 
Olla,  and  of  a  bridge  near  Xaraiz,  constructed,  when 
he  grew  old  and  infirm,  by  the  people  of  these  places, 
to  smooth  the  path  of  their  favorite  preacher  to  their 
village  pulpits.* 

The  fraternity  now  numbered  amongst  its  members 
a  certain  Fray  Alonso  Mudarra,  who  had  been  in  the 
world  a  man  of  rank,  and  employed  in  the  civil  ser- 
vice of  the  emperor.  Fray  Hernando  de  Corral  was 
the  man  of  letters  of  the  band ;  and  it  was  perhaps 
partly  on  account  of  this  strange  taste,  that  those  who 
did  not  think  him  a  saint  considered  him  a  fool.  The 
tallest  and  brawniest  of  the  brotherhood,  his  great 
strength  was  equalled  by  his  love  of  using  it ;  and 
whenever  there  was  any  hard  or  rough  work  to  be 
done,  he  took   it  as  an  affront  if  he  was  not  called  to 


*  A.  Fernandez,  Hist,  de  Plasencia,  p.  196. 

8» 


90  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OP 

do  it.  Amongst  his  other  eccentricities  were  noticed 
his  not  returning  to  bed  after  early  matins,  but  roam- 
ing through  the  cloisters,  praying  aloud,  and  telling 
his  beads  ;  his  buying,  begging,  and  reading  every 
book  that  came  in  his  way ;  and  the  want  of  due 
regard  for  the  refectory  cheer,  which  he  sometimes 
evinced  by  dividing  amongst  beggars  at  the  gate  the 
entire  contents  of  the  conventual  larder.  He  was 
also  particularly  fond  of  the  choral  service,  and  careful 
in  compelling  the  attendance  of  his  brethren  ;  and, 
observing  thait  the  vicar  chose  frequently  to  absent 
himself  from  this  duty,  he  one  day  left  his  stall,  and 
returned  with  the  truant,  like  the  lost  sheep  in  the 
parable,  struggling  in  his  stalwart  arms.  The  greater 
part  of  his  leisure  being  spent  in  reading,  he  was  con- 
sulted by  the  whole  convent  as  an  oracle  of  knowl- 
edge ;  and  he  likewise  was  supposed  to  be  frequently 
visited  in  his  cell  by  the  spirits  of  the  departed.  He 
wrote  much,  it  is  said,  but  on  what  subjects,  or  with 
what  degree  of  merit,  no  evidence  remains.  The 
black  letter  folios  in  the  library  of  the  convent  were 
frequently  enriched  with  his  notes,  and  of  these  a  few 
have  survived  the  neglect  of  three  centuries,  and  the 
violence  of  three  revolutions.* 

Such  were  the  friars  of  Yuste  whose   names  have 
survived  in  the  records  of  the  order ;  but  there  was 


*  In  the  fine  and  curioas  Spanish  library  of  Mr.  Ford,  there  is  a  copy 
of  the  Chronica  del  Ret/  D.  Alonzo  el  On(;eno,  fol.,  Valladolid,  1551,  which 
has  the  following  entry  on  the  back  of  the  last  leaf :  En  veinte  y  dos  de 
Mayo  del  ano  de  md.lii.  (?)  compre  yo  frai  Hernando  de  Corral  este  libra 
en  trugillo  costome  xx  reales.  He  then  goes  on  to  state  the  dates  of  the 
emperor's  arrival  at  the  convent  and  death,  and  of  the  deaths  of  queen 
Eleanor  of  France  and  queen  Mary  of  Hungary. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  91 

one  among  them  who  likewise  belongs  to  the  nobler 
history  of  art.  Fray  Antonio  de  Villacastin  was  born, 
about  1512,  of  humble  parents,  in  the  small  town  of 
Castille,  whence,  according  to  Jeromite  usage,  he  bor- 
rowed his  name.  Early  left  an  orphan,  he  was  brought 
up,  or  rather  suffered  to  grow  up,  in  the  house  of  an 
uncle,  without  prospect  of  future  provision,  and  with- 
out any  preparation  for  gaining  his  bread  except  a 
slight  knowledge  of  reading  and  writing.  When 
about  seventeen  years  old,  being  sent  one  day  with  a 
jug  and  a  real  to  fetch  some  wine,  the  necessity  of 
seeking  his  fortune  struck  him  so  forcibly  as  he  walked 
along,  that  by  the  time  his  errand  was  done,  his  mind 
was  made  up.  Meeting  his  sister  in  the  street,  he 
handed  her  the  jug  and  the  copper  change,  and  taking 
the  road  at  once,  begged  his  way  to  Toledo,  where  he 
slept  for  the  first  night  under  the  market  tables  in  the 
square  of  Zocodover.  He  was  found  there  next  morn- 
ing by  a  master  tiler,  who,  pitying  his  forlorn  con- 
dition, took  him  home,  and  taught  him  his  trade  of 
making  wainscots  and  pavements  of  colored  tiles,  at 
which  he  wrought  for  ten  years  for  his  food  and  cloth- 
ing. At  the  end  of  this  long  apprenticeship,  becoming 
enamored  of  the  monastic  state,  he  begged  a  real  — 
the  only  one  he  ever  possessed  —  from  his  master's 
son,  and  entered  the  Jeromite  convent  at  La  Sisla, 
without  the  walls  of  Toledo.  In  assuming  the  cowl, 
however,  he  by  no  means  laid  aside  the  trowel,  which 
was  ever  in  his  hand  when  the  house  stood  in  need  of 
repair.  Being  a  master  of  the  practical  part  of  build- 
ing, he  was  also  frequently  employed  in  other  monas- 
teries of  the  order.  In  the  Toledan  nunnery  of  San 
Pablo,  the  operations  were  so  extensive  that  he  was 


92  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE'  OF 

at  work  there  for  several  years ;  and  his  biographer 
mentions,  in  his  praise,  that  when  his  duties  ended  he 
maintained  no  connection  with  the  nuns,  "nor  ever 
received  any  billets  from  them,  a  snare  from  which  a 
friar  so  placed  seldom  escapes."  *  His  architectural 
reputation,  after  fifteen  or  sixteen  years'  practice  in 
the  cloister,  stood  so  high,  that  the  general  Ortega 
selected  him,  in  1554,  as  master  of  the  works  at  Yuste, 
which  he  had  now  completed  to  the  entire  satisfac- 
tion of  the  emperor.  In  these  secular  occupations  he 
strengthened  and  improved  the  secular  virtues  of  good 
temper  and  good  sense,  and  yet  maintained  a  high 
character  for  zeal  and  punctuality  in  the  religious 
business  of  his  cloth  ;  unconscious  that  he  was  train- 
ing himself  for  one  of  the  most  important  posts  ever 
filled  in  the  world  of  art  by  a  Spanish  monk,  —  that 
of  master  and  surveyor  of  the  works  at  the  palace- 
monastery  of  the  Escorial. 

Fray  Juan  de  Ortega,  late  general  of  the  order,t 
continued  to  reside  with  the  fraternity  of  Yuste,  al- 
though he  still  remained  a  member  of  his  own  con- 
vent at  Alba  de  Tormes.  In  intelligence  and  man- 
ners he  was  greatly  above  the  vulgar  herd  of  friars, 
and  was  much  esteemed  and  trusted  by  the  emperor, 
and  even  by  his  monk-hating  household. 

In  works  of  charity,  that  redeeming  virtue  of  the 
monastic  system,  the  fathers  of  Yuste  were  diligent 
and  bounteous.  Of  wheat,  six  hundred  fanegas,  or 
about  one  hundred  and  twenty  quarters,  in  ordinary 
years,  and  in  years  of  scarcity  sometimes  as  much  as 


*  Siguenga:  Uist.  de  la  Orden  de  S.  Geron.,  Parte  III.  p.  893. 
t  Chap.  II.  p.  44. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  93 

fifteen  hundred  fanegas,  or  three  hundred  quarters, 
were  distributed  at  the  convent  gate  ;  large  donations 
of  bread,  meat,  oil,^and  a  little  money,  were  given, 
publicly  or  in  private,  by  the  prior,  at  Easter,  Christ- 
mas, and  other  festivals  ;  and  the  sick  poor  in  the  vil- 
lage of  Quacos  were  freely  supplied  with  food,  medi- 
cine, and  advice. 

The  emperor's  house,  or  palace,  as  the  friars  loved 
to  call  it,  although  many  a  country  notary  is  now 
more  splendidly  lodged,  was  more  deserving  of  the 
approbation  accorded  to  it  by  the  monarch,  than  of 
the  abuse  lavished  upon  it  by  his  chamberlain. 
Backed  by  the  massive  south  wall  of  the  church,  the 
building  presented  a  simple  front  of  two  stories  to  the 
garden  and  the  noontide  sun.  Each  story  contained 
four  chambers,  two  on  either  side  of  a  corridor,  which 
traversed  the  structure  from  east  to  west,  and  led  at 
either  end  into  a  broad  porch,  or  covered  gallery,  sup- 
ported by  pillars  and  open  to  the  air.  Each  room 
was  furnished  with  an  ample  fireplace,  in  accordance 
with  the  Flemish  wants  and  ways  of  the  chilly  inva- 
lid. The  chambers  looking  upon  the  garden  were 
bright  and  pleasant,  but  those  on  the  north  side  were 
gloomy,  and  even  dark,  the  light  being  admitted  to 
them  only  by  windows  opening  on  the  corridor,  or  on 
the  external  and  deeply  shadowed  porches.  Charles 
inhabited  the  upper  rooms,  and  slept  in  that  at  the 
northeast  corner,  from  which  a  door,  or  window,  had 
been  cut  in  a  slanting  direction  into  the  church, 
through  the  chancel  wall,  and  close  to  the  high  altar. 
The  shape  of  this  opening  appears  to  have  been  al- 
tered after  the  strictures  passed  on  it  by  Quixada,  for 
.  it  now  affords  a  good  view  of  the  space  where  the 


94 


THE    CLOISTER   LIFE    OF 


high  altar  once  stood.  The  emperor's  cabinet,  in 
which  he  transacted  business,  was  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  corridor,  and  looked  upon  the  garden. 
From  its  window,  his  eye  ranged  over  a  cluster  of 
rounded  knolls,  clad  in  walnut  and  chestnut,  in  which 
the  mountain  dies  gently  away  into  the  broad  bosom 
of  the  Vera.  Not  a  building  was  in  sight,  except  a 
summer-house  peering  above  the  mulberry  tops  at  the 
lower  end  of  the  garden,  and  a  hermitage  of  Our  Lady 
of  Solitude,  about  a  mile  distant,  hung  upon  a  rocky 
height,  which  rose  like  an  isle  out  of  the  sea  of  forest. 
Immediately  below  the  windows  the  garden  sloped 
gently  to  the  Vera,  shaded  here  and  there  with  the 
massive  foliage  of  the  fig,  or  the  feathery  boughs  of 
the  almond,  and  breathing  perfume  from  tall  orange- 
trees,  cuttings  of  which  some  of  the  friars,  themselves 
transplanted,  in  after  days  vainly  strove  to  keep  alive 
at  the  bleak  Escorial.  The  garden  was  easily  reached 
from  the  western  porch  or  gallery  by  an  inclined  path, 
which  had  been  constructed  to  save  the  gouty  mon- 
arch the  pain  and  fatigue  of  going  up  and  down 
stairs.  This  porch,  which  was  much  more  spacious 
than  the  eastern,  was  his  favorite  seat  when  filled  with 
the  warmth  of  the  declining  day.  Commanding  the 
same  view  as  the  cabinet,  it  looked  also  upon  a  small 
parterre  with  a  fountain  in  the  centre,  and  a  short  cy- 
press-alley leading  to  the  principal  gate  of  the  garden. 
Beyond  this  gate  and  wall  was  the  luxuriant  forest  ; 
a  wide  space  in  front  of  the  convent  being  covered  by 
the  shade  of  a  magnificent  walnut-tree,  even  then 
known  as  the  great  walnut-tree  of  Yuste,  a  Nestor  of 
the  woods  which  has  seen  the  hermit's  cell  rise  into  a 
royal  convent  and  sink  into  a  ruin,  and  has  survived  , 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  95 

the  Spanish  order  of  Jerome,  and  the  Austrian  dy- 
nasty of  Spain. 

The  emperor's  attendants  were  lodged  in  apart- 
ments built  for  them  near  the  new  cloister,  and  in 
the  lower  rooms  of  that  cloister ;  and  the  hostel  of  the 
convent  was  given  up  to  the  physician,  the  bakers, 
and  the  brewers.  The  remainder  of  the  household 
were  disposed  of  in  the  village  of  Quacos.  The  em- 
peror's private  rooms  being  surrounded  on  three  sides 
by  the  garden  of  the  convent,  that  was  resigned  to  his 
exclusive  possession,  and  put  under  the  care  of  his 
own  gardeners.  The  ground  near  the  windows  was 
planted  with  flowers,  under  the  citron-trees  ;  and  far- 
ther off,  between  the  shaded  paths  which  led  to  the 
summer-house,  vegetables  were  cultivated  for  his 
table,  which  was  likewise  supplied  with  milk  from  a 
couple  of  cows  that  pastured  in  the  forest.  The  Je- 
romites  removed  their  pot-herbs  to  a  piece  of  ground 
to  the  eastward,  behind  some  tall  elms  and  the  wall 
of  the  imperial  domain.  The  entrances  to  the  palace 
and  its  dependencies  were  quite  distinct  from  those 
which  led  to  the  monastery ;  and  all  internal  commu- 
nications between  the  region  of  the  friars  and  the 
settlement  of  the  Flemings  were  carefully  closed  or 
,built  up. 

The  household  of  the  emperor  consisted  in  all  of 
about  sixty  persons.  His  confidential  attendants,  who 
composed  his  "  chamber,"  as  it  was  called,  stand  thus 
marshalled  in  his  will,  doubtless  in  the  exact  order  of 
their  precedence,  and  with  the  annexed  salaries  at- 
tached to  their  names. 

,    .    _   .      ,  (  Chamberlain     (mayor-  ? 

LuisQmxada,  \     ^^^^^^^  \^      \ 


96 


THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


Henrique  Mathys, 
Guyon  de  Moron, 

Martin  de  Gaztelu, 

William  Van  Male, 
Charles  Pre  vest,* 
Ogier  Bodart,t 
Martin  Donjart, 

Giovanni  Torriano, 

Nicholas  Beringuen, 
William  Wykerslooth 
Dirk '- 


189,000    maravedis,  or 

£54. 
pd-  ■) 

>  400  florins,  or  £40. 

150,000  maravedis,   or 

£43. 

1  300    florins,     or    £30. 

\  300        "         or    £30. 

chamber  {at/udas   de  \  goo         "         or    £20. 

"  or  £30. 
maravedis,  or 
10s. 


Physician, 

(  Keeper  of  the   ward 
I      robe  (giiardaropa) 

Secretary, 
Gentlemen      of      the 


camara), 
Watchmaker, 


J  300 
(  75,000 
(      £21 


Gentlemen      of      the 
'  J      chamber,  of  the  sec- 
1      ond  class   (jbarberos), 
Gabriel  De  Suet,  [ 

Peter  Van  Oberstraaten,  Apothecary, 
Peter  Guillen,  Assistant  Apothecary, 


each    250    florins,    or 
£25. 

280  florins,  or  £28. 
80      "      or  £  8. 


The  salary  of  Quixada,  on  returning  to  his  post  in 
1556,  was  to  be  raised,  and  he  himself  had  been  asked 
to  name  the  amount  of  increase,  which,  however,  he 
declined  to  do,  leaving  the  matter  entirely  in  the  hands 
of  his  master.  Charles,  who  was  the  most  frugal  of 
men,  was  at  this  time  in  correspondence  with  the  king 
and  the  secretary  of  state  on  the  subject ;  and  in  one 
of  his  subsequent  letters,  J  it  appears  that  he  considered 


*  The  spelling  of  these  Flemish  names,  both  in  the  printed  pages  of 
Sandoval  and  the  MS.  of  Gonzalez  is  most  inaccurate  and  perplexing. ' 
"Prevost"  is,  in  many  cases,  turned  into  Pubest,  Dirk  is  Chirique,  and 
others  are  disguised  beyond  the  powers  of  detection  of  any  one  but  a 
Fleming.  Even  the  Italian  Torriano,  whose  name,  in  its  Spanish  famil- 
iar form,  was  Juanelo  Torriano,  sometimes  figures  as  Juan  el  Lotoriauo, 
In  turning  the  maravedis  and  florins  into  English  money,  I  have  been 
guided  chiefly  by  Josef  Garcia  Cavallero :  Breve  Cotejo  y  Valance  de 
las  Pesos  y  Medidas  de  varias  Naciones,  4to,  Madrid,  1731. 

t  No  doubt  the  person  alluded  to  in  Chap.  III.,  p.  54,  note,  as  Bodo- 
arte. 

t  Gaztelu  to  Vazquez,  24th  of  August,  1587. 


THE  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  ^FTH.        97 

the  mayordomo's  rank  entitled  him  to  the  same  sal- 
ary as  that  which  had  been  enjoyed  by  the  chamber- 
lain of  queen  Juana,  or  that  which  was  still  paid  to 
the  tutor  of  Don  Carlos.  Nevertheless,  the  question 
remained  unsettled,  and  it  was  one  of  the  points  to 
be  arranged  by  Archbishop  Carranza,  who,  however, 
did  not  arrive  at  Yuste  until  the  emperor's  accounts 
with  the  world  were  on  the  eve  of  being  closed. 

Quixada,  Moron,  Gaztelu,  and  Torriano  lived  at 
Quacos,  where  lodgings  were  likewise  provided  for 
the  laundresses,  the  only  female  portion  of  the  house- 
hold, and  many  of  the  inferior  servants.  So  many  of 
them  being  Flemings,  a  Flemish  capuchin,  Fray  John 
Alis,  was  established  at  Xarandilla  for  the  conven- 
ience of  those  who  wished  to  confess. 

On  the  4th  of  February,  the  emperor  awoke  in  his 
new  home,  in  excellent  health  and  spirits.  He  spent 
the  morning  in  inspecting  the  rooms,  and  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  furniture  ;  and  in  the  afternoon  he  caused 
himself  to  be  carried  in  his  chair  to  the  hermitage  of 
Belem,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  monastery. 
The  physicians  Cornelio  and  Mole,  who  were  still  in 
attendance,  walked  out  to  botanize  in  the  woods,  in 
search  of  certain  specifics  against  hemorrhoids,  with 
which  their  patient  had  been  troubled.  Not  finding 
them,  Cornelio  went  to  look  for  them  at  Plasencia, 
and  finally  was  obliged  to  procure  a  supply  from  Val- 
ladolid.  Meanwhile  the  symptoms  of  the  disease 
abated  so  much,  that  when,  in  about  a  fortnight,  the 
plants  arrived,  the  emperor  ordered  them  to  be  planted 
in  the  garden,  and  even  dispensed  with  the  attend- 
ance of  the  consulting  doctors,  dismissing  them  with 
all  courtesy,  and  letters  to  the  princess-regent. 


98  0THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

A  great  monarch,  leaving  of  his  own  free  will  his 
palace  and  the  purple  for  sackcloth  and  a  cell,  is  so 
fine  a  study,  that  history,  misled,  nothing  loath,  by 
pulpit  declamation,  has  delighted  to  discover  such  a 
model  ascetic  in  the  emperor  at  Yuste.  "  His  apart- 
ments, when  prepared  for  his  reception,"  says  Sando- 
val, "  seemed  rather  to  have  been  newly  pillaged  by 
the  enemy,  than  for  a  great  prince;  the  walls  were 
bare,  except  in  his  bedchamber,  which  was  hung  with 
black  cloth ;  the  only  valuables  in  the  house  were  a 
few  pieces  of  plate  of  the  plainest  kind  ;  his  dress,  al- 
ways black,  was  usually  very  old;  and  he  sat  in  an 
old  arm  chair,  with  but  half  a  seat,  and  not  worth 
four  reals."  *  This  picture,  accurate  in  only  two  of 
the  details,  is  quite  false  in  its  general  effect.  The 
emperor's  conventual  abode,  judging  by  the  inventory 
of  its  contents,!  was  probably  not  worse  furnished  than 
many  of  the  palaces  in  which  his  reigning  days  had 
been  passed.  He  was  not  surrounded  at  Yuste  with 
the  .splendors  of  his  host  of  Augsburg;  but  neither 
did  the  fashions  of  the  sumptuous  Fugger  prevail  at 
Ghent  or  Innsbruck,  Valsain  or  Segovia.  For  the 
hangings  of  his  bed-room  he  preferred  sombre  black 


V  Sandoval,  Tom.  II.  p.  825.  Wilhelm  Snouckaert,  who  had  been 
the  emperor's  librarian  at  Brussels,  and  who,  under  the  more  euphoni- 
ous name  of  Zenocarus,  wrote  De  Republtca  Vita,  ^-c.  Cces.  Aug.  Quinti 
Caroli  Max,  Monarches,  fol.,  Bruges,  1559,  says  (p.  289)  that  Charles  had 
only  ticelve  ser\'ants  at  Yuste.  Yet  he  asserts  (p.  288)  that  his  dull, 
meagre,  and  pompous  book  had  been  seen  and  approved  by  Don  Luis 
de  Avila.  Cesare  Campana,  in  his  Vita  de  Catholico  Don  Filipjw  de 
Austria,  3  vols ,  4to,  (Vicenza,  1605,)  Part  II.  fol.  151,  reduces  this 
slender  retinue  to  four. 

t  Drawn  up  after  his  decease,  by  Quixada,  Gaztelu,  and  Regla.  An 
abstract  of  the  document  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  99 

cloth  to  gayer  arras ;  but  he  had  brought  from  Flan- 
ders suits  of  rich  tapestry,  wrought  with  figures, 
landscapes,  or  flowers,  more  than  sufficient  to  hang 
the  rest  of  the  apartments  ;  the  supply  of  cushions, 
eider-down  quilts,  and  linen  was  luxuriously  ample; 
his  friends  sat  on  chairs  covered  with  black  velvet ; 
and  he  himself  reposed  either  on  a  chair  with  wheels, 
or  in  an  easy  chair  to  which  six  cushions  and  a  foot- 
stool belonged.  Of  gold  and  silver  plate,  he  had  up- 
wards of  thirteen  thousand  ounces  ;  he  washed  his 
hands  in  silver  basins  with  water  poured  from  silver 
ewers  ;  the  meanest  utensil  of  his  chamber  was  of  the 
same  noble  material ;  and  from  the  brief  descriptions 
of  his  cups,  vases,  candlesticks,  and  salt-cellars,  it 
seems  probable  that  his  table  was  graced  with  several 
masterpieces  of  Tobbia  and  Cellini. 

In  his  dress  he  had  ever  been  plain  to  parsimony, 
and  therefore  it  is  not  very  likely  that  he  should  turn 
dandy  in  the  cloister.  His  suit  of  sober  black  was  no 
doubt  the  same,  or  such  another,  as  that  painted  by 
Titian  in  the  fine  portrait  wherein  the  emperor  still 
sits  before  us,  pale,  thoughtful,  and  dignified,  in  the 
Belvidere  palace  at  Vienna ;  and  he  probably  often 
gave  audience  in  such  a  "  gowne  of  black  taflety  and 
furred  nightcap,  like  a  great  codpiece,"  as  Roger  As- 
cham  saw  him  in,  "sitting  sick  in  his  chamber"  at 
Augsburg,  and  looking  so  like  Roger's  friend,  "  the 
parson  of  Epurstone."  *  In  his  soldier  days  he  would 
kt^t  and  patch  a  broken  sword-belt,  until  it  would 
have  disgraced  a  private  trooper ;  f  and  he  even  car- 

*  Eng.  Works,  p.  375. 

t  Salazar  de  Mendoza :  Origen  de  las  Dignidades  de  Costilla,  fol.,  To- 
ledo, 1618,  p.  161. 


100  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

ried  his  love  of  petty  economy  so  far,  that,  being 
caught  near  Naumburg  in  a  shower,  he  took  off  his 
velvet  cap,  which  happened  to  be  new,  and  sheltered 
it  under  his  arm,  going  bareheaded  in  the  rain  until 
an  old  cap  was  brought  him  from  the  town.*  His 
jewel-case  was,  as  might  be  supposed,  rather  miscel- 
laneous than  valuable  in -its  contents,  amongst  which 
may  be  mentioned  a  few  rings  and  bracelets,  some 
medals  and  buttons  to  be  worn  in  the  cap,  several  col- 
lars and  badges  of  various  sizes  of  the  Golden  Fleece,f 
some  crucifixes  of  gold  and  silver,  various  charms, 
such  as  the  bezoar-stone  against  the  plague,  and  gold 
rings  from  England  against  cramp,  a  morsel  of  the 
true  cross,  and  other  relics,  three  or  four  pocket- 
watches,  and  several  dozen  pairs  of  spectacles. 

If  the  emperor  despised  the  vulgar  gewgaws  of 
wealth  and  power,  his  retreat  was  adorned  with  some 
pictures,  few,  but  well  chosen,  and  worthy  of  a  dis- 
cerning lover  of  art  and  of  the  patron  and  friend  of 
Titian.  A  composition  on  the  subject  of  the  Trinity, 
and  three  pictures  of  Our  Lady,  by  that  great  master, 


*  Ranke:  Ottoman  and  Spanish  Empires,  Kelly's  translation,  8vo, 
London,  1843,  p.  30. 

t  The  collar  of  this  order,  given  by  Ferdinand  VII.  to  the  late  duke 
of  Wellington,  was  believed  in  Spain  to  have  belonged  to  Charles  V. ; 
and  the  same  story  was  told  of  the  Fleece  sent,  in  1851  or  1852,  to  the 
president,  now,  "par  la  grdce  de  Dieu  et  la  nolonte  nutionale"  emperor 
Napoleon  III.,  of  France.  It  is  a  compliment  which  the  Spanish  crown 
very  likely  has  it  in  its  power  to  pay  ;  as  the  emperor  in  the  courj#of 
his  life  must  have  possessed  many  badges  of  the  order.  In  our  duke's 
case,  the  collar  and  badge  may  have  been  authentic  ;  but  the  connecting 
ornament,  as  figured  in  Lord  Downcs's  Orders  and  Batons  of  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  obi.  fob,  London,  1852,  is  plainly  modern  and  spurious. 
No  such  ornament  is  found  on  the  medals  or  contemporary  prints  of 
Charles  V. 


THE    EMPEROR   CHARLES   THE    FIFTH.  101 

filled  the  apartments  with  poetry  and  beauty ;  and,  as 
specimens  of  his  skill  in  another  style,  there  were  por- 
traits of  the  recluse  himself  and  of  his  empress.  Our 
Lord  bearing  his  cross,  and  several  other  sacred  pic- 
tures, came  from  the  easel  of  "  Maestro  Miguel,"  — 
probably  Michael  Cock,  of  Antwerp,  famous  for  his 
skill  in  copying,  and  his  dishonesty  in  appropriating 
the  works  of  Raphael.  Three  cased  miniatures  of  the 
empress,  painted  in  her  youthful  beauty,  and  soon 
after  the  honeymoon  in  the  Alhambra,  kept  alive 
Charles's  recollection  of  the  wife  whom  he  had  lost ; 
and  Mary  Tudor,  knitting  her  forbidding  brows  on  a 
panel  of  Antonio  More,  hung  on  the  wall,  to  remind 
him  of  the  wife  whom  he  had  escaped,  and  of  the 
kingdom  which  his  son  had  conquered  in  that  prudent 
alliance.  Philip  himself,  his  sisters  the  princess- 
regent,  the  queen  of  Bohemia,  and  the  duchess  of 
Parma,  and  the  king  of  France,  portrayed  on  canvas, 
or  in  relief  on  plain  medallions,  likewise  helped  by 
their  effigies  to  enliven  the  apartments  of  the  empe- 
ror, as  well  as  by  their  policy  to  occupy  his  daily 
thoughts  and  nightly  dreams.  Long  tradition,*  which 
there  seems  little  reason  to  doubt,  adds,  that  over  the 
high  altar  of  the  convent,  and  in  sight  of  his  own  bed, 
he  had  placed  that  celebrated  composition  called  the 
"  Glory  of  Titian,"  a  picture  of  the  last  judgment,  in 
which  Charles,  his  wife,  and  their  royal  children  were 
represented  in  the  master's  grandest  style,  as  conduct- 
ed by  angels  into  life  eternal.  And  another  master- 
piece of  the  great  Venetian  —  St.  Jerome  praying  in 
his  cavern,  with  a  sweet  landscape  in  the  distance  — 

*  Fr.  Fran,  de  Los  Santos :  Descripcion  del  Escorial,  fol.,  Madrid,  1657, 
fol.  71. 

9* 


I 


102  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OP 

is  also  reputed  to  have  formed  the  apposite  altar-piece 
in  the  private  oratory  of  the  emperor. 

The  palace  of  Yuste  was  less  rich  in  books  than  in 
pictures.  The  library  indeed  barely  exceeded  thirty 
volumes,  chiefly  of  works  of  devotion  or  science. 
Amongst  the  religious  books  were  the  treatises  on 
Christian  doctrine,  by  Dr.  Constantine  de  la  Fuente,* 
who  died  soon  after,  a  prisoner  for  heresy  in  the  dun- 
geons of  Seville,  and  by  Fray  Pedro  de  Soto,t  a  lumi- 
nary of  Trent,  and  long  the  emperor's  confessor,  and 
now  employed  by  Philip  to  preach  the  Roman  super- 
stition in  the  not  unwilling  halls  of  Oxford. 

Divine  philosophy  was  represented  by  the  writings 
of  Ptolemy  and  Appian,  and  by  Italian,  French,  and 
Castillian  J  versions  of  Boethius  De  Consolatione,  a 
work  which  had  the  honor  of  being  translated  into 
our  English  tongue  by  Alfred  and  by  Chaucer;  and 
which  for  a  thousand  years  was  preeminently  the 
book  which  no  gentleman's  library  could  be  without. 
For  historical  reading,  there  were  Caesar's  Commen- 
taries in  Italian,  the  German  Wars,  by  the  grand 
commander  of  Alcantara,§  and  some  sheets  in  manu- 
script of  the  great  chronicle  upon  which  the  canon 
Ocampo  was  now  at  work  at  Zamora.  Besides  the 
Psalter,  the  only  poetry  in  the  collection  was  the 
Chevalier  Delibere  of  Ollivier  de  la  Marche,  and  the 
Castillian  translation,  versified  from  the  emperor's 
prose  by  Acu5a,||  the  latter  being  in  manuscript,  and 

*  Doctrina  Christiana^  8vo,  Antwerp,  s.  a. 

t  Instltutionum  Christianarum,  Libri  III.,  16mo.     August,  1548. 

t  Probably  that  by  Fr.  Alberto  de  Aguayo,  4to,  Sevilla,  1521. 

§  Chap.  III.  p.  75. 

II  Chap.  III.  p.  59. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  103 

both  adorned  with  colored  plates  and  drawings.  "  A 
large  volume,  filled  with  illuminated  drawings  on 
vellum,"  seems  to  imply  that  Charles  brought  with 
him  to  the  woods  some  memorials  of  Clovio  and  Ho- 
landa,  as  well  as  of  the  bolder  pencil  of  Titian ;  and 
there  were  also  several  illuminated  missals  and  hours, 
and  a  quantity  of  maps  of  Italy,  Flanders,  Germany, 
and  the  Indies.  Most  of  the  books  were  bound  in  crim- 
son velvet,  with  clasps  and  corners  of  silver,  the  sump- 
tuous dress  in  which  the  early  bibliomaniacs  loved 
to  array  their  treasures,  but  which  the  ever-teeming 
press  was  fast  turning  into  a  more  sober  garb  of  goat- 
skin or  hog-skin. 

Music,  ever  one  of  the  favorite  pleasures  of  Charles, 
here  also  lent  its  charms  to  soothe  the  cares  which 
followed  him  from  the  world,  and  the  dyspepsia  from 
which  he  would  not  even  try  to  escape.  A  little 
organ,  with  a  silver  case  and  of  exquisite  tone,  was 
long  kept  at  the  Escorial,  with  the  tradition,*  that  it 
had  been  the  companion  of  his  journeys,  and  the  sol- 
ace of  his  evenings  when  encamped  before  Tunis. 
The  order  of  St.  Jerome  being  desirous  to  gratify  the 
taste  of  their  guest,  the  general  had  reinforced  the 
choir  of  Yuste  with  fourteen  or  fifteen  friars,  chosen 
from  the  different  monasteries  under  his  sway,  for 
their  fine  voices  and  musical  skill.  In  the  manage- 
ment of  the  choir  and  organ,  the  emperor  took  a  lively 
interest*,  and  from  the  window  of  his  bedroom  his 
voice  might  often  be  heard  to  accompany  the  chant 
of  the  friars.  His  ear  never  failed  to  detect  a  wrong 
note,  and  the  mouth  whence  it  came ;  and  he  would 

*  Beckford's  Italy ^  Spain,  and  Portugal^  fcap.  8vo,  London,  1840,  p.  323. 


104  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

frequently  mention  the  name  of  the  offender,  with  the 
addition  of  hideputa  bermejo,  or  some  other  epithet 
savoring  more  of  the  camp  than  the  cloister.  A  sing- 
ing-master from  Plasencia  being  one  day  in  the 
church,  ventured  to  join  in  the  service;  but  he  had 
not  sung  many  bars  before  orders  came  down  from 
the  palace  that  the  interloper  should  be  silenced  or 
turned  out.  Guerrero,  a  chapel-master  of  Seville, 
having  composed  and  presented  to  the  emperor  a 
book  of  masses  and  motets,  one  of  the  former  was 
soon  selected  for  performance  at  Yuste.  When  it 
was  ended,  the  imperial  critic  remarked  to  his  confes- 
sor that  Guerrero,  the  hideputa!  was  a  cunning  thief; 
and  going  over  the  piece,  he  pointed  out  the  stolen 
passages,  and  named  the  masters  whose  works  had 
suffered  pillage.* 

Eloquence  was  likewise  an  art  which  the  emperor 
loved,  and  of  which  the  order  desired  to  provide  him 
with  choice  specimens.  Three  chaplains,  who  were 
esteemed  the  best  preachers  in  the  fold  of  Jerome, 
were  ordered  to  repair  to  Yuste  for  his  delectation. 
The  foremost  of  these,  Fray  Francisco  de  Villalva,  had 
entered  the  convent  of  Montamarta,  near  Zamora, 
about  1530.  Being  a  promising  youth,  the  prior  sent 
him  to  the  college  of  the  order  at  Siguenca,  whence 
he  came  forth  an  expert  dialectician,  and  soon  rose  to 
be  the  most  popular  preacher  in  Castille.  His  theo- 
logical professor  being  appointed  archbishop  of  Gran- 
ada, took  him  into  his  service,  and  in  that  capacity 
Villalva  had  an  opportunity  of  studying  for  a  year 
.the  best  Italian  orators  at  the  council  of  Trent.     He 

*  Sandoval,  II.  p.  828. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  105 

was  afterwards  preacher  to  the  great  hospital  at  Za- 
ragoza,  whence  he  was  summoned  to  Yuste.  There 
his  eloquence  charmed  the  emperor,  as  it  had  charmed 
the  peasants  of  Zamora ;  and  he  so  eclipsed  his  col- 
leagues, that  they  seem  to  have  been  seldom  called  to 
the  pulpit  except  during  a  few  weeks  when  Charles, 
at  the  urgent  request  of  the  city  of  Zaragoza,  spared 
him  for  a  while  to  his  old  admirers. 

Fray  Juan  de  A^oloras,  a  monk  from  the  great 
convent  of  Our  Lady  of  Prado,  near  Valladolid,  was 
also  an  eminent  divine  and  schoolman,  and  he  had  so 
successfully  combated  the  harsh  tone  and  accent  of 
his  native  Biscay,  that  his  delivery  in  the  pulpit  was 
considered  as  a  model  of  grace.  Fray  Juan  de  San- 
tandres,  from  the  convent  of  Santa  Catalina,  at  Tala- 
vera,  was  less  eloquent  than  his  compeers,  but  high- 
ly esteemed  for  purity  of  doctrine  and  life.  Besides 
these  regular  and  retained  ministers,  any  Jeromite 
with  a  reputation  for  preaching,  who  chanced  to  pass 
that  way,  was  sure  of  an  invitation  to  display  his 
powers  before  the  emperor  at  Yuste. 

The  simple  and  regular  habits  of  Charles  accorded 
well  with  the  monotony  of  monastic  life.  Every 
morning,  father  Regla  appeared  at  his  bedside  to  in- 
quire how  he  had  passed  the  night,  and  to  assist  him 
in  his  private  devotions.  He  then  rose,  and  was 
dressed  by  his  valets ;  after  which  he  heard  mass, 
going  down,  when  his  health  permitted,  into  the 
church.  According  to  his  invariable  custom,  which 
in  Italy  was  said  to  have  given  rise  to  the  saying 
dalla  inessa,  alia  mensa,  from  mass  to  mess,  he  went 
from  these  devotions  to  dinner  about  noon.  The 
meal  was  long;  for  his  appetite  was  voracious;  his 


106  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

hands  were  so  disabled  with  gout,  that  carving,  which 
he  nevertheless  insisted  on  doing  for  himself,  was  a 
tedious  process ;  and  even  mastication  was  slow  and 
difficult,  his  teeth  being  so  few  and  far  between. 
The  physician  attended  him  at  table,  and  at  least 
learned  the  causes  of  the  mischief  which  his  art  was 
to  counteract.  The  patient,  while  he  dined,  conversed 
with  the  doctor  on  matters  of  science,  generally  of 
natural  history;  and  if  any  difference  of  opinion 
arose,  father  Regla  was  sent  for  to  settle  the  point 
out  of  Pliny.  The  cloth  being  drawn,  the  confessor 
usually  read  aloud  from  one  of  the  emperor's  favorite 
divines,  Augustine,  Jerome,  or  Bernard,  an  exercise 
which  was  followed  by  conversation,  and  an  hour  of 
slumber.  At  three  o'clock  the  monks  were  mustered  in 
the  convent  to  hear  a  sermon  delivered  by  one  of  the 
imperial  preachers,  or  a  passage  read  by  Fray  Bernar- 
dino de  Salinas  from  the  Bible,  frequently  from  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  the  book  which  the  emperor 
preferred.  To  these  discourses  or  readings  Charles 
always  listened  with  profound  attention ;  and  if  sick- 
ness or  business  compelled  him  to  be  absent,  he  never 
failed  to  send  a  formal  excuse  to  the  prior,  and  to  re- 
quire from  his  confessor  an  account  of  what  had  been 
preached  or  read.  The  rest  of  the  afternoon  was  de- 
voted to  seeing  the  official  people  from  court,  or  to 
the  transaction  of  business  with  his  secretary. 

Sometimes  the  workshop  of  Torriano  was  the  re- 
source of  the  emperor's  spare  time.  He  was  very 
fond  of  clocks  and  watches,  and  curious  in  reckoning 
to  a  fraction  the  hours  of  his  retired  leisure.  The 
Lombard  had  long  been  at  work  upon  an  elaborate 
astjonomical  timepiece,  which  was   to  perform  not 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  107 

only  the  ordinary  duties  of  a  clock,  but  to  tell  the 
days  of  the  month  and  year,  and  to  denote  the  move- 
ments of  the  planets.  In  this  delicate  labor,  the 
mechanician  advanced  as  slowly  as  the  doctors  of 
Trent  in  the  construction  of  their  system  of  theology. 
Twenty  years  had  elapsed  since  he  had  first  conceived 
the  idea,  and  the  actual  execution  cost  him  three 
years  and  a  half.  Indeed,  the  work  had  not  received 
the  last  touches  at  the  time  of  the  emperor's  death. 
Of  wheels  alone,  it  contained  eighteen  hundred ;  the 
material  of  the  case  was  gilt  bronze,  and  its  form 
round,  about  two  feet  in  diameter,  and  somewhat  less 
in  height,  with  a  tapering  top,  which  ended  in  a  tower 
containing  the  bell  and  hammer.  Charles  was  great- 
ly pleased  with  the  ingenious  toy ;  he  inquired  what 
inscription  the  maker  intended  to  put  upon  it;  and 
being  told  that  nothing  had  been  contemplated  be- 
yond the  words,  iannellvs  .  tvrrianvs  .  cremonensis  . 

HOROLOGIORVM    .    ARCHITECTOR  .   added    FACILE    .    PRIN- 

CEPs  .  which  accordingly  made  part  of  the  epigraph. 
On  the  back  of  the  clock  Juanelo  caused  his  own  por- 
trait to  be  graven,  encircling  it  with  a  legend,  less  in 
accordance  with  his  original  modest  intentions  than 
with  the  emperor's  laudatory  amendment,  qvi  .  sim  . 

SCIES  .  si  .  PAR  .  OPVS  .  FACERE  .  CONABERIS. 

He  likewise  made  for  the  emperor  a  smaller  clock, 
less  multiform  and  ambitious  in  its  functions,  and  in- 
closed in  a  case  of  crystal,  which  allowed  the  working 
of  the  machinery  to  be  seen,  and  suggested  the  motto, 

VT  .  ME  .  FVGIENTEM  .  AGNOSCAM. 

He  also  constructed  a  self-acting  mill,  which,  though 
small  enough  to  be  hidden  in  a  friar's  sleeve,  could 
grind  two  pecks  of  corn  in  a  day ;  and  the  figure  of  a 


108  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

lady  who  danced  on  the  table  to  the  sound  of  her  own 
tambourine.*  Other  puppets  were  also  attributed  to 
him,  minute  men  and  horses,  which  fought,  and 
pranced,  and  blew  tiny  trumpets,  and  birds  which 
flew  about  the  room  as  if  alive ;  toys  which,  at  first, 
scared  the  prior  and  his  monks  out  of  their  wits,  and 
for  a  while  gained  the  artificer  the  dangerous  fame 
of  a  wizard.f 

Sometimes  the  emperor  fed  his  pet  birds,  which  ap- 
pear to  have  succeeded  in  his  aft'ections  the  stately 
wolf-hounds  that  followed  at  his  heels  in  the  days 
when  he  sat  to  Titian ;  or  he  sauntered  among  his 
trees  and  flowers,  down  to  the  little  summer-house 
looking  out  upon  the  Vera ;  or  sometimes,  but  more 
rarely,  he  strolled  into  the  forest  with  his  gun,  and 
shot  a  few  of  the  wood-pigeons  which  peopled  the 
great  chestnut-trees.  His  out-door  exercise  was  always 
taken  on  foot,  or,  if  the  gout  forbade,  in  his  chair  or 
litter ;  for  the  first  time  that  he  mounted  his  pony  he 
was  seized  with  a  violent  giddiness,  and  almost  fell 
into  the  arms  of  his  attendants.^  Such  was  the  last 
appearance  in  the  saddle  of  the  accomplished  cavalier, 
of  whom  his  soldiers  used  to  say,  "  that,  had  he  not 
been  born  a  king,  he  would  have  been  the  prince  of 
light-horsemen,"  §  and  whose  seat  and  hand  on  the 

*  Ambrosio  de  Morales :  Antiguedades  de  EsjxiTm,  {61.,  Alcala  de 
Henares,  1575,  fol,  93.  Morales  knew  Torriano  well,  and  appears  to 
have  seen  the  clock  which  he  so  minutely  describes,  although  he  does 
not  say  where  it  was  ultimately  placed. 

t  Strada :  De  Bello  Belg.,  Lib.  I. 

$  Sandoval :  Hist,  de  Carlos  V.,  II.  p.  825,  and  Siguen^a,  III.  p.  192, 
whence  many  of  these  details  are  taken. 

§  J.  A.  Vera  y  Figueroa :  Vida  del  Emp.  Carlos  V.,  4to,  Brussels, 
1G56,  p.  263. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  109 

bay  charger  presented  to  him  by  our  bluff  king  Hal,* 
won,  at  Calais  gate,  the  applause  of  the  English 
knights  fresh  from  those  tournays 

"  Where  England  vied  with  France  in  pride  on  the  famous  field  of  gold." 

Next  came  vespers;  and  after  vespers  supper,  a  meal 
very  much  like  the  dinner,  consisting  frequently  of 
pickled  salmon  and  other  unwholesome  dishes,  which 
made  Quixada's  loyal  heart  quake  within  him. 


Stow's  Annals,  foL,  London,  1631,  p.  511. 


10 


110  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


CHAPTER     V. 

STATE  CRAFT  IN  THE  CLOISTER. 

Dimly  seen  over  the  wintry  woodlands,  and 
through  a  November  mist,  Yuste  had  appeared  to 
the  household  at  Xarandilla  a  place  of  penance ;  but 
their  dismal  forebodings  were  by  no  means  realized 
in  their  new  quarters  on  the  fresh  hill-side,  bright  with 
the  sunshine  of  the  budding  spring.  Writing  on  the 
day  of  the  emperor's  arrival  there,  Monsieur  Lachaulx 
complained  of  nothing  but  the  Jeromite  neighbors. 
"  His  majesty,"  he  said,  "  was  delighted  with  the 
place,  and  still  more  were  the  friars  delighted  to  see 
him  among  them,  an  event  which  they  had  almost 
ceased  to  hope  for.  May  it  please  God  that  he  shall 
find  them  endurable,  for  they  are  ever  apt  to  be  im- 
portunate, especially  those  who  are  such  blockheads 
as  some  of  the  fraternity  here  seem  to  be."  Lachaulx 
himself  had  apparently  recovered  from  his  ague,  and 
become  reconciled  to  the  climate  of  Estremadura,  for 
being  one  of  the  chamberlains  who  had  been  placed 
on  the  retired  list,  he  made  the  pilgrimage  to  Guada- 
lupe, and  afterwards  resided  for  a  few  weeks  on  a 
commandery  of  Alcantara  which  he  enjoyed  in  the 
province.  He  was  afterwards  chosen  by  the  emperor 
as  his  envoy  to  the  queen  of  England,  and  set  out  on 
that  mission  about  the  middle  of  March,  with  letters 
in  which  Charles  assured  Mary,  "that,  although  his 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  Ill 

retreat  was  all  he  could  wish  it,  he  would  not,  in  tak- 
ing his  own  ease,  fail  to  assist  by  word  and  deed  such 
measures  as  might  be  necessary  for  the  furtherance 
of  those  great  affairs  of  which  the  king,  his  son,  had 
now  his  hands  full." 

Instructions  had  come  from  Valladolid  to  the  local 
authorities  of  Plasencia  and  the  Vera,  requiring  their 
implicit  obedience  to  the  order  of  the  emperor;  and 
contentment,  or  an  approach  to  contentment,  returned 
to  the  troubled  minds  of  the  household.  Secretary 
Gaztelu  candidly  avowed  that  he  had  become  recon- 
ciled to  Yuste,  and  that  as  a  residence  it  was  far  bet- 
ter than  Xarandilla.  Quixada  admitted  that  the  place 
seemed  to  agree  with  his  master,  and  that  his  general 
health  was  excellent.  While  acknowledging  the  re- 
ceipt of  salmon  from  Valladolid,  lampreys  from  the 
Tagus,  and  pickled  soles  sent  by  the  duchess  of  Bejar, 
he  nevertheless  owned  that  his  majesty's  twinges  of 
gout  had  lately  been  less  frequent  and  less  severe. 
On  St.  Martin's  day,  he  said,  he  walked  without  as- 
sistance to  the  high  altar  to  make  his  offering.  "  You 
cannot  think,"  writes  he  to  Vasquez,  "  how  well  and 
plump  he  looks ;  and  his  fresh  color  is  to  me  quite 
astonishing.  But,"  he  adds  mournfully,  "  this  is  a 
very  lonely  and  doleful  existence ;  and  if  his  majesty 
came  here  in  search  of  solitude,  by  my  faith  I  he  has 
found  it."  In  another  letter  he  says,  "This  is  the 
most  solitary  and  wretched  life  I  have  ever  known, 
and  quite  insupportable  to  those  who  are  not  content 
to  leave  their  lands  and  the  world,  which  I,  for  one, 
am  not  content  to  do." 

Philip  the  Second  assured  the  Venetian  envoy  at 
Bruxelles  that  his  father's  health  seemed  as  complete- 


112  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

ly  restored  by  the  air  of  Ynste  as  if  he  had  been  there 
for  ten  years.*  From  the  time  of  his  arrival  at  the 
convent,  he  had  been  able  to  give  close  and  regular 
attention  to  public  affairs.  It  is  worthy  of  remark, 
that  during  the  greater  part  of  his  residence  in  Spain, 
from  his  landing  at  Laredo  in  September,  1556,  to  the 
3d  of  May,  1558.  his  public  despatches  were  always 
headed  "the  emperor,"  and  addressed  to  "Juan  Vaz- 
quez de  Molina,  my  secretary."  He  wrote  not  only 
with  the  authority,  but  in  the  formal  style,  of  a  sover- 
eign, and  until  his  abdication  of  the  imperial  throne 
had  been  accepted  by  the  diet,  he  considered  himself, 
as  in  fact  he  was,  emperor  of  the  Romans.  A  dis- 
pute about  precedence,  the  great  question  of  diplo- 
macy until  the  first  French  revolution,  arising  at  the 
court  of  Lisbon  between  the  ambassadors  of  France 
and  Spain,  he  accredited  the  Spaniard  as  ambassador 
from  himself  as  well  as  from  his  son,  and  so  foiled 
the  pretensions  of  the  Frenchman.  It  soon  became 
known  that  the  recluse  at  Yuste  had  as  much  power 
as  the  regent  at  Valladolid,  and  the  gate  was  there- 
fore besieged  with  suitors.  Women  presented  them- 
selves, asserting  that  they  were  widows  of  veterans 
who  had  fought  in  Germany,  in  Italy,  or  in  Africa; 
"  a  class  of  petitioners,"  said  Gaztelu,  "  very  prone  to 
imposture,"  which  was  therefore  civilly  referred  to 
Valladolid.  One  Anton  Sanchez,  a  venerable  coun- 
tryman from  Criptana,  came  to  complain  of  the  mal- 
administration of  the  villages  and  lands  of  the  order 
of  Santiago ;  he  seemed  respectable  as  well  as  vener- 
able, and  was  kindly  received  and  dismissed  with  let- 

*  BeJatione  of  Badovaro.     See  Chap.  II.  p.  39. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE     FIFTH.  113 

ters  of  recommendation  to  the  council  of  the  orders. 
A  fiery  English  courier,  who  had  been  kept  waiting  a 
whole  month  at  court  for  the  answer  to  his  despatch- 
es, losing  all  patience,  made  his  way  across  the  moun- 
tains to  lodge  his  complaint  at  Yuste.  The  emperor 
received  him  with  perfect  courtesy,  and  transmitted 
orders  to  Valladolid  that  his  business  should  be  con- 
cluded, and  he  sent  home  forthwith. 

It  has  been  frequently  asserted  that  the  emperor's 
life  at  Yuste  was  a  long  repentance  for  his  resignation 
of  power;  and  that"  Philip  was  constantly  tormented, 
in  England  or  in  Flanders,  by  the  fear  that  his  father 
might  one  day  return  to  the  throne.*  This  idle  tale 
can  be  accounted  for  only  by  the  melancholy  fact,  that 
historians  have  found  it  easier  to  invent  than  to  inves- 
tigate. An  opinion  certainly  prevailed,  even  among 
those  who  had  access  to  good  political  information,! 
that  Charles  would  resume  power  when  his  health 
was  sufficiently  reestablished,  an  opinion  founded, 
perhaps,  on  the  fact,  that  the  cession  of  the  imperial 
crown  was  still  incomplete,  and  on  the  difficulty 
which  the  world  found  in  believing  that  the  first 
prince  in  Christendom  had,  of  his  own  free  will,  de- 
scended for  ever  from  the  first  throne  in  the  world. 
But,  however  it  may  have  arisen,  the  notion  was  jus- 
tified by  no  word  or  deed  of  the  emperor.  So  far 
from  regretting  his  retirement,  Charles  refused  to  en- 
tertain several  proposals  that  he  should  quit  it.  Al- 
though he  had  abdicated  the   Spanish  crowns,  Philip 

*  G.  Leti:  Vita  dele  Emp.  Carlo  F.,  4  vols.,  12mo,  Amsterd.,  1700, 
IV.  362,  363.  Amelot  de  la  Houssaye :  Memoires,  2  vols.,  12mo,  Amst, 
1700,1.  294. 

f  Relatione  of  Badovaro. 
10* 


114  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

had  not  yet  formally  taken  possession  of  them,  and 
the  princess-regent,  fearing  that  the  turbulent  and  still 
free  people  of  Aragon  might  make  that  a  pretext  for  re- 
fusing the  supplies,  was  desirous  that  her  father  should 
summon  and  attend  a  Cortes  at  Monzon,  in  which 
the  oath  might  be  solemnly  taken  to  the  new  king. 
The  emperor's  disinclination  to  move  obliged  her  to 
find  other  means  of  meeting  the  difficulty,  which  was 
finally  surmounted  without  disturbing  his  repose. 
Later  in  the  year,  in  the  autumn  of  1557,  it  was 
confidently  reported  that  the  old  cloistered  soldier 
would  take  the  command  of  an  army  which  it  was 
found  necesssary  to  assemble  in  Navarre,  and  at  one 
mournful  moment  he  had  actually  taken  it  into  con- 
sideration whether  he  would  leave  his  choir,  his  ser- 
mons, and  his  flowers,  for  the  fatigues  and  privations 
of  a  camp.  He  was  often  urged,  both  by  the  king 
and  the  princess-regent,  directly  by  letters,  and  covert- 
ly through  his  secretary  and  chamberlain,  to  instruct 
the  prince  of  Orange  to  keep  in  abeyance  as  long  as 
possible  the  deed  of  imperial  abdication ;  the  reasons 
alleged  being,  that,  when  the  sceptre  had  absolutely 
departed,  the  Pope  would  find  fresh  pretexts  for  inter- 
ference in  the  internal  affairs  of  the  empire,  and  Span- 
ish influence  would  be  wofuUy  weakened,  in  the 
duchy  of  Milan  especially,  and  generally  throughout 
Europe.  But  on  this  point  Charles  would  listen  nei- 
ther to  argument  nor  to  entreaty:  he  was  willing  to 
exercise  his  imperial  rights  so  long  as  they  remained 
to  him ;  but  he  would  not  retard  by  an  hour  the  ful- 
filment of  the  exact  conditions  to  which  he  had  sub- 
scribed at  Brussels.  Philip,  on  his  side,  seems  to  have 
been  as  free  from  jealousy  as  his  father  was  free  from 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  115 

repentance.  Although  frequently  implored  by  his  sis- 
ter to  return  to  Spain  and  relieve  her  of  the  burden  of 
power,  he  continued  in  Flanders,  maintaining  that  his 
presence  was  of  greater  importance  near  the  seat  of 
war,  and  that,  so  long  as  their  father  lived  and  would 
assist  her  with  his  counsel,  she  would  find  no  great 
difficulty  in  conducting  the  internal  affairs  of  Castille. 
In  truth,  Philip's  filial  affection  and  reverence  shines 
like  a  grain  of  fine  gold  in  the  base  metal  of  his  char- 
acter: his  father  was  the  one  wise  and  strong  man 
who  crossed  his  path  whom  he  never  suspected,  un- 
dervalued, or  used  ill.  The  jealousy  of  which  he  is 
popularly  accused,  however,  seems  at  first  sight  prob- 
able, considering  the  many  blacker  crimes  of  which  he 
stands  convicted  before  the  world.  But  the  repose  of 
Charles  cannot  have  been  troubled  with  regrets  for  his 
resigned  power,  seeing  that  in  truth  he  never  resigned 
it  at  all,  but  wielded  it  at  Yuste  as  firmly  as  he  had 
wielded  it  at  Augsburg  or  Toledo.  He  had  given  up 
little  beyond  the  trappings  of  royalty ;  and  his  was 
not  a  mind  to  regret  the  pageant,  the  guards,  and  the 
gold  sticks. 

The  portion  which  he  had  reserved  to  himself  of 
the  wealth  of  half  the  world  was  one  sixteenth  part 
of  the  rents  of  the  crown,*  and  a  share  of  the  profits  of 
the  mines  of  Guadalcanal.  The  sum  thus  raised  must 
have  fluctuated  from  year  to  year,  but  it  was  estimat- 

*  The  technical  words  of  Gaztela  are,  '•  derechos  de  once  y  seis  al 
miliar,"  —  "  duties  of  eleven  and  six  in  the  thousand  "  ;  of  which  I  have 
been  able  to  find  no  explanation.  My  friend,  Don  Pascnal  de  Gayangos, 
thinks  that  it  onght,  perhaps,  to  have  been  "on^a  y  miliar,"  meaning  one 
sixteenth  of  a  thousand,  or  about  6^3^  per  cent,  of  the  crown  rents,  the 
word  "  onsa,"  or  ounce,  the  j'g  of  a  pound,  being  frequently  used  to  denote 
that  fraction. 


116  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

ed  by  one  writer  *  at  twelve  thousand  ducats,  or  about 
fifteen  hundred  pounds  sterling,  a  provision  scarcely 
amounting  to  the  half  of  that  which  his  will  directed 
to  be  made  for  his  natural  son,  Don  John.  A  sum  of 
thirty  thousand  ducats  was  also  lying  at  his  disposal 
in  the  fortress  of  Simancas.  Soon  after  the  emperor 
had  settled  himself  at  Yuste,  he  sent  Gaztelu  to  Valla- 
dolid  to  arrange  with  Vazquez  about  the  time  and 
mode  of  paying  the  instalments  of  his  revenue.  He 
was  likewise  instructed  to  provide  for  the  regular  pay- 
ment of  certain  alms  to  the  convents  in  which  daily 
prayers  were  to  be  said  for  the  emperor's  soul,  the  list 
being  headed  by  the  name  of  the  great  Dominican  house 
of  Our  Lady  of  Atocha,  the  miraculous  image  which  is 
still  the  favorite  idol  of  Madrid.  The  envoy  returned 
from  Valladolid  on  the  8th  of  March,  bringing  the 
good  news  that  the  mines  of  Guadalcanal  were  pro- 
ducing in  great  and  unusual  abundance,  and  that  the 
king  of  Portugal  had  consented  that  the  infanta  Mary 
should  visit  her  mother  in  Spain.  The  despatches 
from  Yuste  make  no  complaints  of  that  unpunctuali- 
ty  of  the  treasury  remittances  on  which  historians 
have  frequently  had  to  moralize.  Gaztelu,  indeed, 
once  cautioned  the  secretary  of  state  against  delays  in 
making  his  payments,  the  emperor,  he  wrote,  being 
most  particular  in  requiring  the  exact  performance  of 
each  part  of  the  service  of  his  household.!  The  ad- 
vice appears  to  have  been  followed ;  for  the  only  other 
remark  on  the  subject  is  one  made  by  Charles  him- 
self, — "  the  money  for  the  expenses  of  my  house  al- 
ways comes  to  hand  in  very  good  time."  J 

*  Sandoval.  f  Gaztelu  to  Vazquez,  June  I5th,  1557. 

t  "La  provision  de  dinero  para  mi  casa  llega  siempre  a  muy  bien 
tiempo."    Emperor  to  Vazqnez,  September  22d,  1557. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  117 

In  spite  of  the  untold  wealth  which  Spain  possessed 
beyond  the  ocean,  the  crown  was  in  constant  distress 
for  money.  That  financial  ruin  which  was  completed 
by  Olivares,  had  begun  in  the  days  of  Granvella.  By 
means  of  bills  of  exchange,  obtained  at  usurious  rates 
from  the  bankers  of  Genoa,  the  colonial  revenue  was 
forestalled  two  years  before  it  was  collected ;  and 
the  bars  and  ingots  of  Mexico  and  Peru  may  be  said 
to  have  been  eaten  up  by  courtiers  and  soldiers,  fired 
away  in  cannon,  and  chanted  away  by  friars,  before 
they  had  been  dug  from  the  caverns  of  Sierra  Madre, 
or  washed  from  the  gravel  of  Yauricocha.  When  in 
due  time  the  precious  freight  of  the  galleons  reached 
the  royal  vaults  at  Seville,  it  belonged  almost  wholly 
to  foreign  merchants;  and  the  country  having  no 
manufacturing  or  commercial  industry  in  which  the 
golden  harvest  could  become  the  seed  of  new  public 
and  private  wealth,  it  passed  away  to  enrich  poorer 
soils  and  fructify  in  colder  climes.  The  popular 
sense  of  the  value  of  the  golden  regions  was  embodied 
in  the  proverb,  used  by  expectants  heart-sick  with  de- 
ferred hope,  who  said  that  the  event  despaired  of 
"  would  come  with  the  Indian  revenue."  *  The  war 
in  Italy  and  the  war  in  Flanders,  the  fleets  in  the 
Mediterranean,  the  fortresses  on  the  shores  of  Africa, 
now  demanded  such  vast  and  increasing  supplies, 
that  the  princess-regent  was  almost  at  her  wit's  end 
for  ways  and  means  of  obtaining  them.  Many  a 
hint  did  she  drop,  in  her  despatches,  of  the  good  use 
she  could  make  of  the  money  at  Simancas.  But  the 
emperor  would  take  no  hints,  and,  like  another  Shy- 

*  "  No  se  logra  mas  que  hazienda  de  las  Indias."  Mimoires  curieux 
envoyez  de  Madrid,  sm.  8vo,  Paris,  1670. 


118  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OP 

lock,   preferred   keeping   his    ducats   to    pleasing  his 
daughter. 

Necessity,  which  has  no  law  and  respects  none,  at 
length  drove  the  princess  and  her  council  to  a  step 
contrary  to  every  principle  of  justice.  The  plate  fleet 
having  arrived  at  Seville,  orders  were  sent  down  to  the 
Indian  board  to  take  possession  of  the  whole  bullion, 
not  only  of  that  which  belonged  to  the  crown,  but 
also  of  that  which  was  the  property  of  private  adven- 
turers, who  were  to  be  paid  its  value  in  places  under 
government,  in  orders  on  the  land  revenue,  or  in 
treasury  bonds  bearing  interest.  As  might  be  expect- 
ed, the  robbers  who  proposed  to  buy,  and  the  victims 
who  were  required  to  sell,  differed  widely  about  the 
price.  The  places  were  refused,  the  assignats  scoffed 
at;  and  finally  the  traders,  aided  by  the  wanderers 
from  whom  the  gains  of  their  wild  lives  were  about  to 
be  wrested,  attacked  the  royal  officers  as  they  were 
landing  their  booty,  and  rescued  it  from  the  grasp  of 
the  crown. 

When  the  news  of  this  transaction  reached  Yuste, 
the  emperor  went  into  a  fit  of  passion  very  unusual  to 
his  cool  temperament.  The  view  which  he  took  of 
the  matter  was  entirely  royal  and  wrong.  He  would 
not,  perhaps  he  could  not,  see  the  injustice  which  had 
been  done  to  the  subject;  but  he  felt  most  keenly  the 
indignity  which  had  been  suffered  by  the  crown.  The 
rough  gold-seekers  who  had  thus  boldly  defended  their 
hard-earned  wealth,  repelling  violence  by  violence,  ap- 
peared to  him  no  better  than  pirates  who  had  boarded 
a  royal  galleon  on  the  high  seas,  or  brigands  who  had 
rifled  a  train  of  royal  mules  on  the  king's  highway. 
Were  his  health  sufficiently  strong,  he  said,  he  would 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  119 

go  down  to  Seville  himself,  and  sift  the  matter  to  the 
bottom ;  he  would  not  be  trammelled  by  the  ordinary 
forms  of  justice,  but  would  at  once  confiscate  the 
goods  of  the  offenders,  and  place  their  persons  in  du- 
rance, there  to  fast  and  do  penance  for  their  crime. 
Unjust  as  this  view  of  the  affair  was,  it  was  precisely 
the  view  which  the  traders  expected  the  government 
to^ake,  and  which  they  would  themselves  have  taken 
had  they  been  the  government.  Alarmed  for  the  con- 
sequences, the  prior  and  consuls  of  the  merchants  of 
Seville  —  the  chairman  and  chamber  of  commerce  of 
their  day  —  raised  a  sum  of  money  by  subscription, 
and  set  out  to  Valladolid  with  their  offering,  in  hopes 
of  pacifying  the  regent  and  the  council.  On  the  way, 
they  craved  leave  to  present  themselves  and  tell  their 
story  at  Yuste.  The  emperor  refused  this  request 
with  scorn,  and  assured  the  princess  that  he  would 
communicate  his  indignation  to  the  king,  were  he  to 
write  with  both  feet  in  the  grave,  or,  to  use  his  own 
forcible  phrase,  "  were  he  holding  death  in  his  teeth."* 
A  commission  appointed  to  examine  the  matter  began 
its  sittings  in  March,  and  continued  them,  with  but 
slender  results,  through  the  summer  and  autumn, 
urged  at  intervals  to  despatch  by  the  impatient  inqui- 
ries transmitted  from  Yuste.  It  was  not  till  Septem- 
ber that  the  emperor  showed  any  symptoms  of  being 
reasonable  on  the  matter;  nor  till  he  had  heard  that 
the  most  serious  discontent  prevailed  among  the  com- 
mercial men  of  Seville,  would  he  allow  Gaztelu  to 
write,  that,  for  the  sake  of  public  credit,  it  might  be 
proper  for  the  regent  to  alter  her  policy  towards  them, 

*  "  Soy  bueno  por  ello  aanque  tengo  la  muerte  entre  los  dientes, 
holgarc  de  hacerlo."    Emp.  to  Princess-regent,  1st  April,  1557. 


120  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

and  take  such  a  course  as  would  keep  them  in  good 
humor.  One  of"  the  arrested  culprits,  Francisco  Tello, 
however,  died,  after  having  been  twice  submitted  to 
the  torture,  in  the  dungeons  of  Simancas,  merely  for 
refusing  his  gold  to  that  exigency  of  state  against 
which  the  neighboring  strong-box  of  the  emperor  was 
inexorably  shut. 

In  the  spring  of  1557,  the  foreign  affairs  of  Spain 
had  assumed  so  grave  an  aspect,  that  the  king  deter- 
mined to  lay  them  before  his  father  for  his  consid- 
eration and  advice.  For  this  important  mission  he 
selected  Ruy  Gomez  de  ^ilva,  count  of  Melito,  after- 
wards so  well  known  as  prince  of  EbolL  This  cele- 
brated favorite,  now  in  his  fortieth  year,  was  head 
of  a  considerable  Portuguese  branch  of  the  great  house 
of  Silva  which  traced  its  heroic  lineage  to  the  kings 
who  reigned  in  Alba  Longa.  At  the  marriage  of  the 
emperor,  he  had  held  the  bride's  train  as  one  of  her 
pages;  attached  to  the  person  of  Philip  from  the  cra- 
dle, he  had  been  the  playmate  of  his  childhood,  and 
the  friend  of  his  youth  ;  he  had  accompanied  the 
prince  on  his  travels,  and  had  supported  the  timid  and 
awkward  knight  at  the  tournay  and  cane-play ;  not 
long  since,  he  had  carried  the  wedding  gifts  to  the 
fond  bride  who  awaited  the  king  at  Winchester ;  and 
he  was  himself  married  to  the  proud  beauty  and  heir- 
ess who  was,  or  was  to  be,  his  master's  imperious 
mistress.  Strong  in  these  various  relations,  as  in 
capacity  and  experience,  he  was  every  day  gaining 
ground  upon  his  rival,  the  magnificent  bishop  of  Ar- 
ras, and  he  now  ranked  as  one  of  the  most  important 
personages   who   stood    near    the    Spanish    throne.* 

*  Luis  de  Salazar:  Historia  de  la  Casa  de  Silva,  2  vols,  fol-,  Madrid, 
1685.11.  456. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  121 

Charles  had  a  high  opinion  of  the  favorite's  prudence 
and  abilities  ;  he  had  for  some  days  looked  with  anx- 
iety for  his  arrival,  and  he  now  received  him  with 
every  demonstration  of  cordiality.  Although  he  had 
strictly  forbidden  the  friars  to  entertain  guests,  on  this 
occasion  he  relaxed  the  rule,  and  ordered  "Quixada  to 
provide  him  a  lodging  within  the  precincts  of  Yuste. 
The  favored  envoy  arrived  there  early  on  the  23d  of 
March,  and  was  closeted  for  five  hours  with  the  em- 
peror. Part  of  his  message  was  an  entreaty  on  behalf 
of  the  king,  that  the  emperor,  if  his  health  permitted, 
and  state  atfairs  rendered  it  expedient,  would  remove 
from  the  monastery  to  some  other  residence  nearer  the 
seat  of  government*  Philip  also  desired  his  father's 
opinion  on  the  policy  of  carrying  Don  Carlos  to  Flan- 
ders to  receive  the  oath  of  allegiance  as  heir  apparent 
to  the  dominions  of  the  house  of  Burgundy  ;  and  if 
the  emperor  approved  the  design,  the  count  was  in- 
structed to  bring  the  prince  with  him  when  he  re- 
turned.f  The  journey,  however,  was  never  made  by 
Don  Carlos,  his  grandfather  considering  that  his  fitful 
and  passionate  temperament  rendered  it  as  yet  un- 
safe to  produce  him  to  the  world. J  Next  day,  the 
count  had  a  second  audience  as  long  as  the  first;  and 
the  day  following,  the  2oth  of  March,  after  hearing 
mass  at  daybreak,  he  mounted  his  horse  and  took  the 
road  to  Toledo. 

The  external  affairs  of  the  kingdom   certainly  re- 
quired  at  this  time  counsel  of  the  greatest  sagacity, 

*  Philip's  original  letter  of  the  2d  February,  1557,  to  Ruy  Gomez  de 
Silva,  is  given  in  the  MS.  of  Gonzalez, 
t  Salazar:  Hist,  de  la  Casa  de  Silva,  II.  473. 

i  Luis  Cabrera  de  Cordova :  Filipe  iSegundo,  fol.,  Madrid,  1619,  p.  144. 
11 


122  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

and  action  of  the  greatest  promptitude  and  courage. 
War  was  raging  on  the  frontier  of  the  Netherlands, 
and  it  was  threatened  on  the  frontier  of  Navarre.  Co- 
ligny,  at  the  head  of  a  considerable  army,  was  laying 
waste  Flemish  Artois ;  and  Henry  the  Second  was 
preparing  forces  for  still  greater  operations.  Although 
Anthony  of  Navarre  was  still  engaged  in  treating 
about  an  amicable  cession  of  his  rights  to  the  actual 
possessor  of  his  kingdom,  he  was  suspected  to  be  se- 
cretly treating  with  France  for  aid  to  enable  him  to 
regain  Pamplona  by  the  strong  hand.  The  duke  of 
Alburquerque  was  charged  with  the  defence  of  Na- 
varre ;  and  in  Flanders,  where  the  more  important 
battles  were  to  be  fought,  Philip  the  Second  had 
wisely  committed  his  cause  to  the  military  genius  of 
the  duke  of  Savoy. 

Italy  also  presented  grave  causes  for  anxiety.  Had 
the  power  of  the  Roman  see  equalled  the  fury  of  Paul 
the  Fourth,  the  house  of  Austria  would  long  ago  have 
found  its  neck  beneath  the  heel  of  that  fierce  old  pon- 
tiff. The  duke  of  Guise,  with  a  gallant  army,  was 
now  in  the  states  of  the  church,  and  advancing  upon 
the  confines  of  Naples.  The  insolent  incapacity  of 
the  Caraffas  and  the  inefficiency  of  their  warlike  prep- 
arations, had  not  as  yet  cooled  the  ardor  of  their 
French  allies,  nor  become  fully  evident  to  their  antag- 
onist, the  duke  of  Alba.  At  the  beginning  of  this 
year's  campaign,  fortune  had  frowned  on  the  Spanish 
arms.  The  papal  forces,  led  by  Strozzi,  had  recovered 
Ostia,  and  had  driven  the  Castillians  out  of  Castel- 
Gandolfo,  Palestrina,  and  other  strongholds,  by  which 
they  had  hoped  to  bridle  both  the  pope  and  the 
Frenchman.     Even  the  duke  of  Pagliano,  Caraffa  as 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  123 

he  was,  had  stormed  Vicovaro  and  put  the  Spanish 
garrison  to  the  sword.*  Alba,  therefore,  was  acting 
strictly  on  the  defensive,  being  unwilling  to  waste 
blood  and  treasure  on  fields  where  nothing  was  to  be 
gained  but  dry  blows  and  barren  glory,  or,  as  he  said, 
"  to  stake  the  crown  of  Naples  against  the  brocade 
surcoat  of  the  duke  of  Guise."f 

The  aid  of  the  great  Turk  enabled  the  Most  Chris- 
tian King  to  attack  his  Most  Catholic  brother  by  sea 
as  well  as  by  land,  and  to  harass  him  at  many  points 
of  his  extended  shores.  For  the  second  time  within 
a  few  years,  Christendom  was  scandalized  by  seeing 
St.  Denis,  St.  Peter,  and  Mahomet  leagued  against 
St.  James.  Solyman  the  Magnificent  had  ascended 
the  throne  of  the  east  in  the  same  year  when  Charles 
the  Fifth  became  emperor  of  the  west.  His  reign  was 
no  less  active  and  eventful,  and  far  more  uniform  in 
its  prosperity.  By  the  capture  of  Rhodes,  he  had 
driven  back  the  outpost  of  Christendom  to  Malta  ;  he 
had  performed  Moslem  worship  in  the  cathedral  of 
Buda,  and  had  pushed  his  ravages  to  the  gates  of 
Vieima ;  his  power  was  now  acknowledged  far  up 
the  Adriatic  ;  and  by  his  judicious  protection  of  the 
pirates  of  Africa  and  the  Egean  isles,  his  influence 
was  paramount  in  the  Mediterranean. 

The  growth  which  this  piracy  was  permitted  to  at- 
tain is  a  striking  proof  of  the  mutual  jealousy  and 
distrust  which  rendered  the  Christian  powers  incapa- 
ble of  any  combined  and  sustained  effort  for  the  com- 

*  Alex.  Andrea :  De  la  Guerra  de  Roma  y  de  Napdes,  Aiio  de  jid.  lvi 
y  Lvii,  4to,  Madrid,  1589,  pp.  146,  151. 

t  J.  A.  Vera  y  Figueroa :  Besultas  de  la  Vida  de  Don  Fern.  Alvarez 
de  Toledo,  Duque  de  Alba,  4to,  Milan,  1643,  p.  66. 


124  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

mon  interests  of  Christendom.  Fronn  Cadiz  to  Patras 
there  was  hardly  a  spot  which  had  not  suffered,  and 
none  which  felt  itself  safe,  from  the  wild  marauders 
from  the  shores  of  Numidia.  Better  built,  and  better 
manned  and  equipped,  than  any  other  vessels  on  the 
ocean,  their  light  galiots  and  brigantines  were  ready 
at  all  seasons,  put  out  in  all  weathers,  and,  stooping 
on  their  prey  with  the  swiftness  or  precision  of  the 
cormorant,  overbore  resistance  or  baffled  pursuit. 
Sailing  in  great  fleets,  they  laid  waste  entire  districts 
and  carried  ofl"  whole  populations.  A  few  years  be- 
fore, Barbarossa  had  sold  at  one  time,  at  his  beautiful 
home  on  the  Bosphorus,  where  his  white  tomb  still 
gleams  amongst  its  cypresses,  no  less  than  sixteen 
thousand  Christian  captives  into  slavery.  It  was  not 
only  the  seaman,  the  merchant,  or  the  traveller,  who 
was  exposed  to  this  calamitous  fate.  The  peasant  of 
Aragon  or  Provence,  who  returned  at  sunset  from 
pruning  his  vines  or  his  olives  far  from  the  sound  of 
the.  waves,  might  on  the  morrow  be  ploughing  the 
main,  chained  to  a  Barbary  oar.  Sometimes  a  whole 
brotherhood  of  friars,  from  telling  their  beads  at  ease 
in  Valencia,  found  themselves  hoeing  in  the  rice-fields 
of  Tripoli ;  sometimes  the  vestals  of  a  Sicilian  nun- 
nery were  parcelled  out  amongst  the  harems  of  Fez. 
The  blood-red  flag  ventured  fearlessly  within  range 
of  the  guns  of  St.  Elmo  or  Monjuich ;  it  had  actually 
floated  on  the  walls  of  Gaeta ;  and  when  it  appeared 
off  the  Ligurian  shore,  the  persecuted  duke  of  Savoy 
wisely  fled  inland  from  his  castle  of  Nice.  Yet  Eu- 
rope continued  to  endure  these  outrages,  as  it  might 
have  endured  a  visitation  of  earthquakes  or  of  locusts  ; 
and   the  white-robed  fathers  of  mercy  annually  set 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  125 

forth  on  their  beneficent  pilgrimages  with  a  ransom  of 
itself  sufficient  to  perpetuate  the  evils  which  the  order 
of  redemption  was  intended  to  relieve.  Meanwhile, 
with  such  a  navy  at  his  disposal  as  that  of  Tunis,  and 
Tripoli,  and  Algiers,  and  such  commanders  as  Barba- 
rossa,  Sala,  or  Mami  the  Arnaut,  the  Sultan  wielded 
the  greatest  maritime  power  in  the  Mediterranean, 
and  was  the  most  formidable  of  the  foes  against  whom 
the  wisdom  of  Charles  was  now  called  to  defend 
Spain. 

Flanders,  however,  appeared  to  be  the  point  upon 
which  it  was  advisable  that  the  strength  of  the  crown 
should  be  first  concentrated.  Ruy  Gomez  de  Silva 
had  been  instructed  to  raise  eight  thousand  Castillians 
for  the  army  of  the  duke  of  Savoy.  But  the  treasury 
of  Valladolid  being  already  drained  to  its  last  ducat, 
it  became  necessary  to  look  elsewhere  for  the  sinews 
of  war.  The  emperor  was  of  opinion  that  it  was  now 
time  to  apply  for  aid  to  the  Church.  The  primate  of 
Spain,  Cardinal  Siliceo,  was  very  infirm  and  very 
loyal,  and  his  tenure  of  the  second  wealthiest  see  in 
Europe  had  been  sufficiently  long  to  make  him  very 
rich.  To  his  money-bags  it  was  therefore  determined 
first  to  apply  the  lancet,  and  the  operator  at  once  set 
off  for  Toledo. 

The  good  old  prelate  bled  freely  and  without  a 
murmur,  pouring  into  the  royal  coffers,  in  the  shape 
of  a  benevolence,  or  loan  which  had  but  slender 
chance  of  being  paid,  no  less  a  sum  than  four  hun- 
dred thousand  ducats.  The  archbishop  of  Zaragoza, 
who  was  next  applied  to,  was  also  tolerably  generous, 
contributing,  from  revenues  of  no  great  magnificence, 
twenty  thousand  ducats.  The  bishop  of  Cordova 
11* 


126  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

was  less  tractable.  Although  his  see  was  very  rich, 
and  he  himself  an  illegitimate  scion  of  the  house  of 
Austria,  it  was  not  until  he  had  received  several  hints 
from  the  emperor  himself  that  he  consented  to  ad- 
vance one  hundred  thousand  ducats.  Fernando  de 
Valdes,  archbishop  of  Seville,  was,  however,  the  prel- 
ate who  strove  with  most  spirit  against  the  spoliations 
of  the  king's  envoy.  Magnificent  to  the  church,  and 
mean  to  all  the  rest  of  the  world,  profligate,  selfish, 
and  bigoted,  with  some  refinement  of  taste,  and  much 
dignity  of  manner,  he  was  a  fair  specimen  of  the  great 
ecclesiastic  of  the  sixteenth  century.  In  spite  of  his 
seventy -four  years,  his  abilities  and  energies  were  un- 
impaired, while  his  selfishness  and  bigotry  were  daily 
becoming  more  intense.  The  splendid  mitre  of  St. 
Isidore  was  the  sixth  that  had  pressed  his  politic 
brDws  ;  for  beginning  his  episcopal  career  in  the  little 
Catalonian  see  of  Helna,  he  had  intrigued  his  way  not 
only  to  the  throne  of  Seville,  but  to  the  chair  of  grand 
inquisitor  at  Valladolid.*  He  left,  as  the  principal 
memorials  of  his  name,  as  archbishop,  the  crowii  of 
masonry  and  the  weathercock  Faith  on  the  beautiful 
belfry  of  his  cathedral  at  Seville  ;  and  as  inquisitor, 
two  thousand  four  hundred  death-warrants  in  the  ar- 
chives of  the  holy  ofiice  of  Spain. 

"When  this  astute  prelate  received  from  Ruy  Go- 
mez de  Silva  the  unwelcome  notice  that  the  king  ex- 
pected his  aid  in  the  shape  of  mundane  coin  as  well 
as  of  spiritual  fire,  he  adopted  the  truly  Castillian 
tactics  of  delay,  and  allowed  two  months  to  elapse 


*  D.  Ortiz  de  Zuiiiga:  Annales  de  Sevilla,  fol.,  Madrid,  1677,  pp.  503, 
632. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  127 

without  returning  any  definite  reply.  At  length  the 
emperor  himself  addressed  him  a  letter  similar  in  style 
to  that  which  had  opened  the  purse-strings  of  the 
bishop  of  Cordova.  It  was  with  much  surprise,  said 
Charles,  that  he  found  an  old  servant  of  the  crown, 
who  had  held  great  preferment  for  so  many  years,  thus 
backward  with  his  oft'ering  when  the  emergency  was 
so  grave  and  the  security  so  good.  The  archbishop, 
seeing  the  affair  growing  serious,  now  left  the  court 
and  retired  to  the  monastery,  a  few  leagues  off,  of  St. 
Martin  de  la  Fuente.  From  this  retreat  he  penned  a 
reply,  than  which  nothing  could  be  more  temperate, 
plausible,  dignified,  and  evasive.  Professing  the  pro- 
foundest  reverence  for  his  Catholic  Caesarean  majesty, 
and  gratitude  for  his  past  favors,  he  assured  him  that 
he  never  had  had  the  good  fortune  to  possess  four 
hundred  thousand  ducats  in  his  life.  His  revermes 
were  more  than  absorbed  by  the  colleges  which  he 
was  building  at  Salamanca  and  Oviedo,  and  by  a 
chapel,  likewise  in  progress,  in  Asturias,  in  which  he 
intended  to  endow  seven  chaplains  to  say  perpetual 
masses  for  the  souls  of  his  majesty  and  the  empress. 
All  that  he  could  do,  therefore,  was  to  borrow  a  por- 
tion of  the  money  which  he  had  already  allotted  to 
these  charities,  trusting  that,  small  as  it  w^ould  be,  the 
emperor  would  accept  it,  and  make  provision  for  its 
restitution  in  due  time. 

Meanwhile,  unfortunately  for  the  prelate's  case,  six 
mules  laden  with  silver  were  seen  to  arrive  from  the 
south  at  his  palace  at  Valladolid.  The  princess-re- 
gent, therefore,  directed  Hernando  de  Ochoa,  one  of 
the  royal  accountants,  to  proceed  to  St.  Martin  de  la 
Fuente,  and  reason  the  archbishop  into  compliance. 


128  THE    CLOISTER     LIFE    OF 

The  details  of  the  interview  are  given  in  a  letter  from 
Ochoa  to  the  emperor.*  Poverty  was  still  the  plea 
urged  by  the  prelate,  but  in  a  style  very  different  from 
the  courtly  tone  of  his  letters  from  Yuste.  How  could 
he  find  so  much  money?  Where  was  it  to  come 
from  ?  He  had  never  had  one  hundred  thousand  da- 
cats  in  his  possession  at  one  time  in  his  life,  nor 
eighty  thousand,  nor  sixty  thousand,  no,  nor  even 
thirty  thousand.  Might  all  the  devils  take  him  if  he 
ever  had  !  He  would  also  swear  it,  if  needful,  on  the 
most  holy  sacrament.  Nothing  daunted,  the  cool  ac- 
countant assured  his  lordship  that  he  labored  under  a 
mistake  ;  taking  his  archbishopric  at  the  admitted  an- 
nual value  of  sixty  thousand  ducats,  he  proceeded  to 
anatomize  the  prelate's  annual  expenditure,  and  com- 
pare it  with  his  revenue ;  and  considering  that  it  was 
notorious  that  his  lordship  never  gave  dinners  or 
bought  plate,  he  ended  by  advising  him  to  offer  as  a 
compromise  the  sum  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand ducats.  But  he  also  recommended  him  to  re- 
turn to  court,  and  attend  to  the  business  at  onc6,  or 
else  the  emperor  would  infallibly  find  some  means  of 
helping  himself  to  the  larger  sum  which  he  might 
fairly  demand. 

Reasoning  of  the  same  kind  was  also  used  by  the 
archbishop's  brother,  who  was  afterwards  sent  to  him 
by  the  princess.  Last  of  all  came  a  second  letter 
from  Yuste,  in  which  the  emperor  plainly  told  his 
"  reverend  father  in  Christ,"  that  it  was  well  known 
that  his  coffers  had  lately  been  replenished  with  as 
much  silver  as   six   mules  could   carry,  and   that  he 

•  May  20th. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  129 

hoped  therefore  that  he  would  pay  quietly,  as  it  would 
be  very  unpleasant  to  have  to  use  stronger  means  of 
compulsion.  The  old  fox,  however,  was  a  match  for 
them  all;  he  continued  to  fence  for  a  week  or  two 
more ;  and  he  finally  induced  the  princess  to  accept  of 
one  third  of  the  sum  named  by  her  accountant,  or 
fifty  thousand  ducats,  of  which  only  one  half  was  to 
be  paid  down  in  ready  money. 

Ruy  Gomez  de  Silva  was  again  at  Yuste  on  the 
14th  of  May,  and  on  the  loth  of  July.  On  each  occa- 
sion he  had  a  long  interview  with  the  emperor  to  re- 
port his  progress  in  the  king's  affairs.  In  his  last  visit 
he  was  accompanied  by  Monsieur  Ezcurra  and  Mon- 
sieur Burdeo,  agents  of  the  duke  of  Vendome  ;  and 
the  emperor  gave  a  patient  hearing  to  their  proposal 
that  their  master  should  cede  his  claims  on  Navarre 
on  receiving  the  investiture  of  the  duchy  of  Milan. 
It  cannot  be  supposed  that  Charles  ever  dreamed  of 
paying  such  a  price  for  a  province  which  was  already 
his  own,  and  which  had  been  part  of  the  dominions  of 
his  house  for  fifty  years.*  But  it  was  of  great  impor- 
tance to  keep  alive  the  hopes  of  the  pretender,  who, 
like  a  true  Bourbon,  was  intriguing  both  with  France 
and  Spain,  and  capable  of  any  treachery  to  either  for 
the  slightest  gain  to  himself.  In  August,  he  was  re- 
ported to  have  gone  down  to  Rochelle  to  inspect  the 
squadron  which  Henry  the  Second  was  fitting  out  to 
attack  the  annual  plate  fleet,  now  on  its  homeward 

*  In  one  of  the  papers  mentioned  in  Chap.  III.  p.  54,  note,  Charles, 
while  he  recorded  his  belief  that  Navarre  had  been  justly  conquered  by 
his  grandfather,  nevertheless  charged  Philip  carefully  to  consider  whether 
it  ought  to  be  restored,  or  compensation  allowed  to  any  of  the  claimants, 
—  a  clear  proof  that  he  himself  did  not  intend  to  settle  the  matter.  Po- 
llers de  Granvelle,  IV.  500. 


130  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

voyage  to  the  Guadalquivir.  It  was  thought  neces- 
sary, therefore,  to  strengthen  the  forces  of  Aibur- 
querque,  and  to  use  double  vigilance  in  guarding  the 
passes  into  Navarre  ;  and  it  was  now  that  the  rumor 
arose  jof  the  emperor's  intention  to  take  the  command 
there  in  person.  During  the  summer,  a  considerable 
body  of  troops  had  been  embarked  at  Laredo,  for 
Flanders.  Ruy  Gomez  de  Silva  followed,  proba- 
bly about  the  end  of  July,  taking  with  him  a  sec- 
ond detachment,  and  the  money  which  he,  the 
regent,  and  the  emperor  had  succeeded  in  wringing 
from  the  poverty  of  the  state  and  the  avarice  of  the 
church. 

The  king  of  Portugal  died  at  Lisbon,  on  the  11th 
of  June,  and  on  the  15th  the  tidings  reached  Yuste. 
John  the  Third  was  a  prince  of  but  slender  capacity, 
but  the  mantle  of  his  father's  good  fortune  remained 
with  him  for  a  while ;  and  his  reign  belongs  to  the 
golden  age  of  Portugal,  being  illustrated  with  the 
great  names  of  De  Gama  and  Noronha,  De  Castro  and 
Xavier.  But  disasters  abroad  and  misfortune  at  home 
clouded  the  close  of  his  career.  The  death  of  his  only 
son,  Don  Juan,  was  closely  followed  by  that  of  his 
brother,  the  gallant  Don  Luis,  to  whom  the  nation 
looked  as  natural  guardian  of  the  baby  heir.  The 
king  himself  fell  into  premature  decrepitude,  both  of 
body  and  mind.  The  little  Sebastian,  his  grandson, 
was  sitting  one  day  by  his  bedside,  when  something 
was  brought  to  the  king  to  drink.  The  child,  asking 
for  something  too,  began  to  cry,  because  the  cup  of- 
fered him  had  not  a  cover,  like  that  which  had  been 
given  to  his  grandfather,  —  a  mark  of  early  ambition 
which  the  old  man  took  very  much  to  heart,  and  or- 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE   FIFTH.  131 

dered  the  boy  out  of  the  room  for  thus  desiring  to  be 
treated  like  a  king  before  his  time.* 

First  cousin  to  Charles  the  Fifth,  John  was  also 
brother  of  his  empress,  husband  of  his  sister,  and 
father-in-law  of  two  of  his  children.  But,  in  spite  of 
these  intricately  entwined  ties,  they  were  not  on  the 
most  cordial  terms ;  and  the  plans  and  policy  of  one 
court  were  studiously  kept  secret  from  the  other. 
When  secretary  Gaztelu,  therefore,  wrote  to  the  secre- 
tary of  state  to  send  a  speedy  and  ample  supply  of 
the  best  and  deepest  mourning  for  the  imperial  house- 
hold, he  also  required  him  to  find  out  what  had  passed 
in  the  Portuguese  council  of  state,  at  a  meeting  at 
which  it  was  understood  the  late  king  had  expressed 
a  wish  to  abdicate,  and  to  appoint  the  princess  of 
Brazil  as  guardian  of  her  son  and  regeht  of  bis  king- 
dom. But  in  making  these  inquiries,  he  was  to  be 
especially  careful  that  the  emperor's  name  was  not 
connected  with  the  affair.  Don  Fadrique  Henriquez 
de  Guzman,  mayordomo  of  Don  Carlos,  was  soon 
after  despatched  to  Yuste,  to  be  the  bearer  of  the  em- 
peror's condolences  to  his  sister,  the  widowed  queen 
Catherine.  He  arrived,  with  the  mourning  for  the 
household,  on  the  3d  of  July,  was  admitted  to  a  long 
audience  on  the  4th,  and  at  daybreak  on  the  5th  set 
out  for  Lisbon.  He  was  furnished  with  very  minute 
instructions,  and  was  specially  charged  to  make  no 
mention  of  the  princess  of  Brazil  in  his  conversations 
with  the  queen  or  the  ministers.  But  while  the  em- 
peror wished  to  avoid  all  apparent  interference,  he 
was    nevertheless   very   desirous    that   his   daughter 

*  Menezes  :  Chronica,  p.  43. 


132  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

should  be  appointed  to  the  Portuguese  regency.  The 
princess  herself  was  naturally  most  anxious  to  have 
the  guardianship  of  her  son  and  his  interests;  and  it 
was  perhaps  with  a  view  to  Portugal  that  she  so  fre- 
quently implored  her  brother  to  relieve  her  from  her 
duties  in  Spain.  But  weeks  passed  away  without 
any  certain  intelligence,  and  although  there  were  two 
Spanish  envoys  at  Lisbon,  the  princess  determined  to 
send  a  third,  in  the  person  of  father  Francisco  Borja. 
Neither  Portugal  nor  the  house  of  Avis,  however, 
would  submit  to  the  rule  of  a  sister  of  the  king  of 
Spain.  The  regency  was  therefore  given  to  the  queen 
dowager,  who  closed  her  able  administration  with  the 
brilliant  defence  of  Mazagaon  against  the  Moors. 
The  reins  then  passed  to  the  feebler  hands  of  the  car- 
dinal Henry,  nor  was  Juana  ever  permitted  to  hold 
any  share  of  power,  or  even  to  embrace  her  son. 

For  disappointments  in  Portugal  the  emperor  was 
consoled  by  glorious  news  from  Flanders.  Philip  had 
landed  there  in  July,  with  eight  thousand  troops,  in- 
trusted to  him  by  his  fond  queen  and  her  reluctant 
people.  Emboldened  by  this  accession  of  strength, 
and  reinforced  by  the  new  levies  from  Spain,  the  duke 
of  Savoy  was  now  able  to  carry  on  the  war  with 
greater  vigor.  He  held  Coligny  blockaded  in  St. 
Quentln,  a  place  of  some  strength  on  the  steep  bank 
of  the  Somme.  The  constable  de  Montmorency,  who 
commanded  the  main  French  army,  was  ordered  by 
the  king  of  France  to  throw  some  troops  into  the  place. 
Permitting  this  movement  to  be  effected  with  but  little 
opposition,  the  duke  seized  that  opportunity  of  pass- 
ing the  river  with  his  whole  force.  By  a  succession 
of   skilful    manoeuvres,   he    succeeded    in    surprising 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  133 

Montmorency,  and  compelling  him  to  give  battle, 
when  count  Egmont,  at  the  head  of  seven  thousand 
cavalry,  obtained  in  one  brilliant  charge  the  most 
complete  victory  ever  won  by  the  lions  and  castles  of 
Spain  from  the  lilies  of  France.  The  army  of  the 
constable  suffered  utter  annihilation,  while  the  loss  of 
the  duke  was  said  not  to  exceed  one  hundred  men. 
The  duke  d'Enghien,  Turenne,  and  other  French 
leaders  of  note,  were  slain ;  and  the  constable  and 
four  princes  of  the  blood,  the  Rhinegrave,  and  a  host 
of  the  French  nobility,  with  cannon,  munition,  and 
countless  banners,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Span- 
iard. 

This  great  battle  was  fought  on  the  10th  of  August. 
The  first  news  was  conveyed  to  the  emperor  in  a  brief 
despatch  from  Vazquez,  dated  on  the  20th,  and  prob- 
ably reached  Yuste  about  the  23d.  A  more  detailed 
account,  which  was  afterwards  printed  at  Vallado- 
lid,  soon  arrived,  brought  or  closely  followed  by  a 
courier  sent  by  the  king  from  Flanders.  The  empe- 
ror listened  to  the  intelligence  with  the  greatest  inter- 
est, and  ordered  the  messenger  to  be  rewarded  with 
a  gold  chain  and  a  handsome  sum  of  money.*  On 
the  7th  of  September,  a  solemn  mass  was  celebrated 
in  the  conventual  church,  in  token  of  thanksgiving, 
and  considerable  alms  were  distributed  from  the  im- 
perial purse  to  the  neighboring  poor.  The  emperor 
was  much  disappointed  to  learn  that  his  son  had  not 
been  present  in  the  field,  and  bestowed  his  maledic- 

*  Gonzalez  says  150,000  ducats,  ■which  is  probably  a  slip  of  the  pen 
for  maravedis.  The  emperor  is  reported  to  have  greatly  disappointed 
the  soldier  who  brought  him  the  sword  and  gauntlets  of  Francis  the 
First  from  the  field  of  Pavia,  by  giving  him  only  one  hundred  gold 
crowns  for  his  trouble.  Relatione  of  Badovaro. 
12 


134  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

tion  upon  the  English  troops,  for  whom  the  king  was 
reported  to  have  been  waiting  in  the  rear.  For  some 
weeks  he  continued  impatient  for  news,  counting  the 
days,  as  Quixada  wrote,  which  must  elapse  before 
the  king  could  be  at  the  gates  of  Paris.  The  citizens 
of  Paris,  like  the  emperor,  also  took  it  for  granted  that 
the  Spaniards  would  march  directly  upon  their  capi- 
tal, and  many  of  the  wealthier  families  fled  southward 
into  the  heart  of  the  kingdom.  But  the  hopes  of 
Yuste  and  the  fears  of  the  Louvre  were  equally  foiled 
of  their  fulfilment;  for  Philip,  ever  timid  and  procras- 
tinating, wasted  the  golden  moments  and  the  enthu- 
siasm of  his  troops  on  the  capture  of  a  few  insignifi- 
cant fortresses  in  Picardy. 

The  triumph  of  the  duke  of  Savoy  in  the  Nether- 
lands had  a  singular  effect  upon  the  war  in  Italy.  No 
sooner  had  Guise  commenced  offensive  operations 
against  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  than  he  discovered 
that  no  aid  was  to  be  expected  from  the  pope  or  his 
nephews,  and  no  reliance  to  be  placed  on  their  prom- 
ises. They  had  already  exasperated  him  by  refusing 
him  Ostia  or  Ancona,  which  he  wished  to  garrison,  as 
a  retreat  for  his  troops  in  case  of  the  failure  of  the 
enterprise.  These  robber-churchmen,  indeed,  treated 
their  French  knight-errant  very  much  as  Gines  de 
Passamonte  and  his  gang  treated  the  good  knight  of 
La  Mancha,  after  he  had  rescued  them,  at  the  expense 
of  his  bones,  from  the  lash  and  the  oar.*  As  Guise 
lay  on  the  border-stream  of  Tronto,  he  was  joined  by 
little  more  than  one  half  of  the  papal  auxiliaries 
which  had  been  promised  him ;  and  he  had  not  ad- 

•  Don  Quixote,  Part  I.  Cap.  22. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  135 

vanced  far  into  the  enemy's  territory  before  the  inso- 
lence of  the  Roman  leader,  the  marquis  of  Monte- 
bello,  compelled  him  to  turn  that  Caraffa  ignominious- 
ly  out  of  his  camp.  With  zeal  thus  cooled,  and  with 
forces  quite  inadequate  to  effect  any  permanent  con- 
quest for  France,  Guise  therefore  confined  his  opera- 
tions to  the  capture  of  some  paltry  places  in  the 
Abruzzi,  and  to  an  unsuccessful  siege  of  Civitella, 
from  which  he  was  driven  with  considerable  loss  both 
of  men  and  time.  Retreating  towards  Rome,  he 
threatened  to  evacuate  the  ecclesiastical  states,  and 
join  the  duke  of  Ferrara  in  an  attack  upon  Parma 
and  the  Milanese.  Alba  in  his  turn  now  crossed  the 
Tronto,  marched  into  the  Campagna,  and  took  up  a 
position  within  sight  of  Rome.  The  pope  and  the 
Caraflas,  no  less  cowardly  than  rash,  humbled  them- 
selves before  Guise,  and  bribed  him  to  assist  them  by 
fresh  promises ;  and  the  war  might  have  been  again 
renewed  but  for  the  tidings  of  St.  Quentin.  Happily 
for  art  and  its  monuments,  the  panic  of  the  king  of 
France,  the  baseness  of  the  king  of  Spain,  and  the 
supple  treachery  of  Christ's  vicar,  saved  Rome  from  a 
second  sack.  Guise  and  his  army  were  instantly  re- 
called ;  Alba  was  instructed  that  his  master  valued 
his  great  victory  chiefly  because  it  might  restore  him 
to  the  good  graces  of  the  pope ;  *  and  the  holy  father 
himself  made  haste  to  sacrifice  his  friend,  and  con- 
clude a  close  bargain  with  his  foe.  The  terms  ob- 
tained were  no  less  disgraceful  to  Paul  and  to  Philip 
than  advantageous  to  the  Roman  see.  The  Pope 
was  bound  not  to  take  part  against  Spain  during  the 

*  J.  V.  Bastant:  Historia  del  Duque  de  Alba,  2  torn.,  4to,  Madrid, 
1751,11.  59. 


136  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

present  war,  and  not  to  assist  the  duke  of  Guise  with 
provisions  or  protection.  The  king,  on  his  side,  en- 
gaged to  restore  all  the  places  he  had  taken  from  the 
pope,  and  raze  the  fortifications  with  which  he  had 
strengthened  them ;  to  do  homage  for  the  crown  of 
Naples;  and,  while  he  claimed  an  amnesty  for  the 
papal  rebels,  he  permitted  the  pontiff  to  except  from 
it  Marc  Antonio  Colonna  and  the  chief  Roman  mag- 
nates who  had  been  the  most  active  of  Alba's  allies, 
and  whose  fortunes  were  best  worth  the  acceptance 
of  the  plundering  Caraffas.* 

The  emperor  had  ever  regarded  Paul's  policy  with 
indignation,  which  had  lately  become  mingled  with 
scorn.  He  was  for  meeting  his  fury  with  calm  firm- 
ness ;  and  it  was  by  his  advice  that  the  bulls  of  ex- 
communication, which  were  frantically  fulminated 
against  his  son,  were  forbidden  to  be  published  in  the 
churches,  and  were  declared  contraband  in  the  sea- 
ports of  Spain.  Had  the  king  been  a  heretic,  said 
Charles,  he  could  not  have  been  treated  with  greater 
rigor;  the  quarrel  was  none  of  his  seeking;  and  in 
his  endeavors  to  avoid  it  he  had  done  all  that  was  re- 
quired of  him  before  God  and  the  world.  Had  the 
matter  been  left  in  the  hands  of  the  emperor,  Paul 
would  have  been  dealt  with  in  the  stern  fashion 
which  brought  Clement  to  his  senses :  Alba  would 
have  been  directed  to  advance,  Rome  would  have 
been  stormed,  the  pontiff  made  prisoner  ;  and  the  pri- 
mate of  Spain  and  the  prior  of  Yuste  would  have 
been  directed  to  put  their  altars  into  mourning,  and 
say  many  masses  for  the  speedy  deliverance  of  the 
holy  father  of  the  faithful. 

•  J.  V.  Rostant :  Hist.  ddD.de  Alba,  U.  61. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  137 

It  is  not  very  clear  why  Philip  the  Second  dealt 
thus  gently  with  the  foolish  and  wicked  old  man  who 
was  now  at  his  mercy.  Certain  it  is,  that  no  senti- 
ment of  generosity  towards  a  fallen  foe  ever  found 
place  in  that  cold  and  selfish  heart.  His  moderation 
may  have  been  dictated  by  pure  superstition,  or  it 
may  have  arisen  from  a  secret  desire  to  obtain,  at 
some  future  time,  the  Pope's  sanction  for  his  scheme 
of  dividing  the  great  sees  and  abbeys  of  the  Low 
Countries ;  a  scheme  which  he  afterwards  executed  at 
the  cost  of  so  much  blood,  treasure,  and  territory. 

The  Roman  treaty  was  almost  the  sole  affair  of  im- 
portance transacted  during  the  emperor's  sojourn  at 
Yuste,  without  his  opinion  having  been  first  asked 
and  his  approval  obtained.  About  the  middle  of 
October,  he  heard  with  some  anxiety  that  Alba  had 
concluded  a  treaty  with  the  Pope,  but  the  precise  con- 
ditions, being  probably  still  unknown  at  Valladolid, 
did  not  then  reach  Yuste.  Writing  by  his  master's 
desire  for  fuller  information,  Quixada  confided  to  the 
secretary  of  state  that  the  emperor  w^as  very  much 
afraid  that  the  terms  obtained  were  bad,  having  gener- 
ally observed  that  a  treaty  was  sure  to  prove  unfavor- 
able when  it  was  reported  to  be  completed  and  yet  the 
specification  of  the  particular  clauses  withheld.  The 
next  instalment  of  news,  that  the  French  army  had 
effected  their  retreat,  only  increased  the  misgivings  of 
the  emperor.  At  length  there  came  a  detailed  account 
of  the  negotiations,  and  a  copy  of  the  treaty,  which 
the  secretary  of  state  said  had  given  satisfaction  both 
at  Rome  and  at  Valladolid.  At  each  paragraph  that 
was  read,  the  emperor's  anger  grew  fiercer;  and  before 
the  paper  had  been  gone  through,  he  would  hear  no 
12  * 


138  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

more.  He  was  laid  up  next  day  with  an  attack  of 
gout,  which  the  people  about  him  ascribed  to  the  vex- 
ation which  he  had  suffered;  and  so  deep  an  impres- 
sion did  the  affair  make  upon  his  mind,  that  for 
weeks  after  he  was  frequently  overheard  muttering  to 
himself,  through  his  shattered  teeth,  broken  sentences 
of  displeasure. 

One  of  the  subjects  which  lay  nearest  the  emperor's 
heart  was  the  education  of  his  grandson,  Don  Carlos. 
The  impression  made  upon  him  by  the  boy  during  his 
brief  stay  at  Valladolid  had  been,  as  we  have  seen, 
unfavorable.  The  prince's  governor,  Don  Garcia  de 
Toledo,  was  ordered  to  transmit  to  Yuste  regular  ac- 
counts of  his  pupil's  progress.  His  letters,  though  few 
of  them  are  in  existence,  were  probably  frequent,  and 
they  are  so  minute  in  their  details  of  the  prince's 
health  and  habits,  that  there  is  no  doubt  but  the  em- 
peror took  a  lively  interest  in  his  grandson.  Carlos 
is  painted  by  his  tutor  as  a  sickly,  sulky,  and  back- 
ward boy,  certainly  very  unlikely  to  grow  up  the  pa- 
triot into  which  the  poet's  license  and  the  historian's 
paradox  have  turned  him  at  a  later  period  of  his  un- 
happy life.  On  the  13rh  of  July,  Don  Garcia  com- 
plained to  the  emperor  that  his  pupil  was  lazy  at  his 
books,  and  constipated  in  his  bowels.  The  king,  he 
said,  had  ordered  him  down  to  Tordesillas,  as  a  place 
better  suited  for  study  than  the  court;  but  he,  for  his 
part,  thought  that,  if  they  were  to  leave  Valladolid  at 
all,  the  prince  would  be  nowhere  so  well  as  at  Yuste, 
under  the  eye  of  his  grandfather. 

A  month  later,  on  the  27th  of  August,  he  wrote 
that  Don  Carlos  was  better  in  health,  but  so  choleric 
in  temper,  that  they  were  thinking  of  putting  him  un- 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  139 

der  a  course  of  physic  for  that  disorder ;  but  that  they 
would  wait  until  the  emperor's  pleasure  was  known. 
He  then  described  the  prince's  mode  of  passing 
the  day.  Rising  somewhat  before  seven,  he  prayed, 
breakfasted,  and  went  to  hear  mass  at  half  past  eight; 
after  which  came  lessons  until  eleven,  when  he 
dined.  A  few  hours  were  then  given  to  amusement 
with  his  companions,  with  whom  he  played  at  tru- 
cos  (a  game  somewhat  like  bowls)  or  quoits;  at 
half  past  three  he  partook  of  a  light  meal  (merienda), 
which  was  followed  by  reading,  and  an  hour  of  out- 
door exercise,  before  or  after  supper,  according  to  the 
weather.  By  half  past  nine  he  had  gone  through  the 
prayers  of  his  rosary,  and  was  in  bed,  where  he  soon 
fell  fast  asleep.  The  poor  tutor  was  compelled  still  to 
acknowledge  that  he  had  failed  to  imbue  him  with  the 
slightest  love  of  learning,  in  which  he  consequently 
made  but  little  progress;  that  he  not  only  hated  his 
books,  but  showed  no  inclination  for  cane-playing,  or 
the  still  more  necessary  accomplishment  of  fencing; 
and  that  he  was  so  careless  and  awkward  on  horse- 
back, that  they  were  afraid  of  letting  him  ride  much, 
for  fear  of  accidents.  To  the  emperor,  who  had  loved 
and  practised  all  manly  sports  with  the  ardor  and 
the  skill  of  a  true  Burgundian,  it  must  have  been  a 
disappointment  to  learn  that  the  prowess  of  duke 
Charles  and  kaiser  Max,  which  had  dwindled  wofuUy 
in  his  son  Philip,  seemed  altogether  extinct  in  the 
next  generation. 

These  notices  of  the  character  of  the  heir  apparent 
are  confirmed  by  the  account  of  him  which  the  Ve- 
netian ambassador  at  the  court  of  Bruxelles  transmit- 
ted to  his  republic.    He  reported  that  Don  Carlos  was 


140  THE    CLOISTER   LIFE    OF 

a  youth  of  a  haughty  and  turbulent  temper,  which  his 
tutors  vainly  endeavored  to  tame  by  making  him  read 
Cicero's  treatise  £>e  Officiis ;  and  that,  upon  being 
told  that  the  Low  Countries  were  settled  upon  the 
issue  of  his  step-mother,  Mary  of  England,  he  declared 
that  he  would  maintain  his  right  to  those  states  in 
single  combat  with  any  son  who  might  be  born  to  his 
father  in  that  marriage.* 

•  Relatione  of  Badovaro. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  141 


,  CHAPTER     VI. 

THE  VISIT  OF  THE  QUEENS. 

During  the  whole  of  the  year  1557  the  emperor's 
health  gave  him  but  little  annoyance,  and  cost  Dr. 
Mathys  but  little  trouble  or  anxiety.  It  seemed  as  if 
there  were  some  truth  in  the  saying,  attributed  by  the 
monks  to  Torriano,  and  supposed  to  have  been  the 
result  of  his  astrological  researches,  that  the  Vera  was 
the  most  salubrious  place  in  the  world,  and  Yuste  the 
most  salubrious  spot  in  the  Vera.*  In  spite  of  gener- 
ally eating  too  much,  Charles  slept  well,  and  his  gout 
made  itself  felt  only  in  occasional  twinges;  so  effec- 
tually did  the  senna-wine  counteract  the  syrup  of 
quinces  which  he  drank  at  breakfast,  the  Rhine-wine 
which  washed  down  his  midday  meal,  and  the  beer 
which,  though  denounced  by  the  doctor,  was  the  habit- 
ual beverage  of  the  patient  whenever  he  was  thirsty. 
He  had  suffered,  in  September,  a  slight  attack  of 
dysentery  from  eating  too  much  fruit.  Towards  the 
end  of  October,  he  was  troubled  by  an  inflammation 
in  his  left  eye,  and,  while  waiting  one  day  for  a 
draught  of  senna-wine,  fell  down  in  a  fainting-fit, 
from  which,  however,  he  was  soon  recovered  by  a  lit- 
tle vinegar  sprinkled  on  his  face,  and  suffered  no  sub- 
sequent ill  effect     About  the  middle  of  December,  he 

*  Siguen(,a,  III.  200. 


i 


142  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

complained  of  feebleness,  and  of  phlegm  in  his  throat; 
and,  for  a  while,  forewent  wine  and  beer,  and  drank 
hypocras  and  hot  water.  With  these  exceptions,  he 
was  in  very  tolerable  health  :  he  was  able  to  go  out 
with  his  gun,  though  not  always  able  to  take  a  steady 
aim  without  help :  he  passed  a  good  deal  of  time  in 
the  open  air;  and  frequently  went  to  confess  and  take 
the  sacrament  at  the  hermitage  of  Bethlehem,  —  a 
dependency  of  the  convent,  and  about  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  off  in  the  forest. 

In  the  Vera,  the  year  was  very  unhealthy,  the  spring 
having  been  marked  by  a  famine,  w-hich  extended 
over  the  greater  part  of  Estremadura.  So  severe  was 
the  scarcity,  that  the  emperor's  sumpter  mules,  laden 
with  dainties,  on  their  way  to  the  convent,  were  pil- 
laged by  the  hungry  peasants  ;  and,  in  the  Campo  de 
Arafiuelo,  almost  the  whole  population  of  several 
villages  perished  of  starvation.  In  the  autumn,  se- 
vere colds  and  fevers  prevailed  at  Yuste  and  Quacos; 
and  William  Van  Male  lost  two  children,  and  was  in 
great  apprehension  for  the  life  of  his  wife. 

The  emperor  gave  much  of  his  leisure  time  and  un- 
employed thought  to  his  garden'.  He  had  ever  been 
a  lover  of  nature,  and  a  cherisher  of  birds  and  flowers. 
In  one  of  his  campaigns,  the  story  was  told,  that,  a 
swallow  having  built  her  nest  and  hatched  her  young 
upon  his  tent,  he  would  not  allow  the  tent  to  be 
struck  when  the  army  resumed  its  march,  but  left  it 
standing  for  the  sake  of  the  mother  and  brood.*  From 
Tunis  he  is  said  to  have  brought  not  only  the  best 


•  Vieyra:  Sermoens,  Vol.  XV.  p.  195.     Quoted  in  Southey's  Common- 
place Boole,  I.  p.  408. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  143 

of  his  laurels,  but  the  pretty  flower  called  the  Indian 
pink,  sending  it  from  the  African  shore  to  his  gardens 
in  Spain,  whence,  in  time,  it  won  its  way  into  every 
cottage  garden  in  Europe.*  Yuste  was  a  very  para- 
dise for  these  simple  tastes  and  harmless  pleasures. 
The  emperor  spent  part  of  the  summer  in  embellish- 
ing the  ground  immediately  below  his  windows; 
he  raised  a  terrace,  on  which  he  placed  a  fountain, 
and  laid  out  a  parterre  ;  and  beneath  it  he  formed  a 
second  parterre,  planted,  like  the  first,  with  flowers 
and  orange-trees.  Amongst  his  poultry  were  some 
Indian  fowls,  sent  him  by  the  bishop  of  Plasencia. 
Of  two  fish-ponds  which  he  caused  to  be  formed  with 
the  water  of  the  adjacent  brook,  he  stored  one  with 
trout,  and  the  other  with  tench.  It  was  evidently  his 
wish  to  make  himself  comfortable  in  the  retreat  where 
he  had  a  reasonable  prospect  of  passing  many  years. 
In  the  autumn,  he  sent  for  an  additional  gamekeeper 
to  kill  game  for  his  table  ;  and  in  winter,  for  a  new 
stove  for  his  apartments  ;  and  he  also  received  from 
Flanders  a  large  box  of  tapestry,  amongst  which  was 
a  set  of  hangings  wrought  with  scenes  from  his  cam- 
paigns at  Tunis,  which  still  exist  in  the  queen  of 
Spain's  palace  at  Madrid.  He  also  contemplated  an 
addition  to  his  little  palace,  and  he  had  made  several 
drawings  with  his  own  hands  of  an  intended  oratory, 
and  a  new  wing  for  the  accommodation  of  the  king, 
his  son,  who  was  to  visit  him  as  soon  as  public  af- 


*  Eene  Rapin,  in  his   Hortorum  Libri,  IV.,  4to,  Paris,  1 665,  Lib.  I. 
ver.  952  -  954,  thus  celebrates  the  event :  — 

"  Hunc  primus  poeno  quondam  de  littore  florem, 
Dum  premeret  duro  obsidione  Tunetum 
Carolus  Austriades  terrae  transmisit  Iberse." 


I 


144  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

fairs  permitted  him  to  return  to  Spain.  The  plans 
never  proceeded  farther  than  the  paper  stage ;  nor  was 
Philip's  visit  to  Yuste  paid  until  the  emperor's  own 
rooms  were  vacant. 

During  the  spring,  Luis  Quixada's  home-sick  heart 
was  gladdened  by  leave  of  absence,  a  favor  accord- 
ed of  the  emperor's  own  free  will,  and  unasked,  as 
the  honest  chamberlain  was  careful  to  observe  in 
his  next  letter  to  the  secretary  of  state.  He  would 
have  been  very  glad,  he  added,  if  he  were  not  com- 
ing back  any  more,  to  eat  asparagus  and  truffles 
in  Estremadura.*  He  set  out  on  the  3d  of  April,  and 
the  impatient  English  courier  who  had  come  the  day 
before  with  his  complaints  of  Castillian  dilatoriness  f 
was  probably  his  companion  as  he  rode  through  the 
wild  glens  and  over  the  sweet  flowery  wastes  to 
Valladolid.  To  the  princess-regent  and  the  queen  he 
carried  letters,  written  in  the  emperor's  own  hand, 
which  showed  how  implicitly  the  old  soldier  was 
trusted,  and  how  he  was  treated  almost  like  one  of 
the  family.  The  letter  to  the  regent  briefly  referred 
her  to  the  bearer  for  an  account  of  her  father's  way  of 
life,  and  his  views  on  financial  matters,  and  on  the 
proper  mode  of  dealing  with  the  Sevillian  rogues  who 
preferred  keeping  their  money  to  giving  it  to  the  state  ; 
while  in  the  letter  to  the  queen  of  France,  the  royal 
matron  was  advised  by  her  brother  to  take  counsel 
with  the  mayordomo  in  the  affair  of  the  meeting 
with  her  daughter,  the  impracticable  infanta  of  Por- 
tugal. 

*  "  Bien  me  alegrara,  no  volver  a  Estremadnra  a  comer  esparragos  y 
tarmos  de  tierra."    To  Juan  Vazquez,  March  28th,  15.57. 
t  Chap.  V.  p.  11.3. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  145 

At  court  and  at  his  house  at  Villagarcia,  Quixa- 
da  remained  until  August,  when  the  emperor,  who 
missed  him  more  each  day,  sent  for  him  back.  In 
the  absence  of  the  chief  of  his  household,  he  seems  to 
have  fallen  in  some  degree  into  the  hands  of  the  friars, 
and  by  that  circumstance  to  have  partially  lost  his 
prepossession  in  favor  of  the  Jeromite  robe.  "  The 
friars,"  writes  Gaztelu,  in  undisguised  glee,  "  do  not 
understand  his  majesty  ;  and  now  at  last  he  has  found 
out,  I  think,  his  mistake  in  supposing  that  they  are 
fit  to  be  employed  in  his  service  in  any  way  what- 
ever." It  was  high  time,  therefore,  that  Quixada 
should  resume  the  command,  and  drive  the  monks 
back  over  the  frontier.  He  arrived  at  Yuste  on  the 
21st  of  August,  having  ridden  post  to  Medina  del 
Campo,  and  thence  on  what  he  called  beasts  of  the 
country.  The  emperor  was  very  glad  to  see  him  ; 
and  he  was  also  glad  to  find  the  emperor  very  well, 
paler  perhaps,  but  fatter  than  when  he  took  his  leave. 
Rumors  had  reached  Valladolid,  probably  in  conse- 
quence of  the  alarm  raised  in  Navarre,  that  Charles 
intended  to  leave  the  convent,  but  the  chamberlain 
now  assured  the  secretary  that  they  were  unfounded. 
"  His  majesty,"  he  wrote,  "  is  'the  most  contented 
man  in  the  world,  and  the  quietest,  and  the  least  de- 
sirous of  moving  in  any  direction  whatsoever,  as  he 
tells  us  himself."  *  After  thirty-five  years  of  service, 
and  being  by  the  death  of  his  brother  the  last  of  his 
house,  Quixada  had  much  wished  to  be  relieved  of 
his  official  duties,  and  settle  at  home.     But  the  em- 

*  "  Esta  el  hombre  el  mas  contento  del  mundo,  y  con  mas  reposo  y 
con  menor  gana  para  salir  para  ninguna  parte  y  ansi  lo  dice." 
13 


146  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

peror  having  so  urged  him  to  remain,  that  it  was  im- 
possible to  refuse,  he  had  now  resolved,  he  said,  to 
move  his  wife  and  household  into  Estremadura,  in 
spite  of  the  expense  and  inconvenience  to  which  it 
must  put  him,  and  his  great  dislike  to  the  country. 
The  letter  in  which  this  determination  was  conveyed 
to  Vazquez  ended,  as  usual,  with  the  date,  "  In 
Yuste,"  to  which  the  writer  in  this  ease  added  the 
words,  "  evil  to  him  who  built  it  here ;  30th  of  Au- 
gust, 1557."  * 

During  this  summer,  in  Fray  Juan  de  Ortega  f  the 
convent  lost  one  of  its  best  inmates,  and  the  emperor 
and  his  household  their  favorite  amongst  the  friars. 
Having  been  ailing  for  some  time,  he  obtained  leave, 
at  the  end  of  May,  to  retire  to  his  own  convent  at 
Alba  de  Tormes.  On  the  24th  of  August,  the  whole 
community  of  Yuste  were  saddened  by  the  news  of 
his  death.  Finding  himself  no  better,  and  getting 
weary  of  his  doctor,  he  put  himself  into  the  hands  of 
a  gatherer  of  simples,  the  quack  of  the  district,  who 
very  speedily  relieved  him  from  his  sufferings,  and 
from  further  need  of  physic.  Ortega  is  one  of  those 
men  of  whose  life  the  remaining  fragments  make  us 
wish  for  more.  As  general,  having  suffered  a  vote  of 
censure  for  attempting  to  reform  the  order,  the  decree 
of  the  chapter  had  likewise  declared  him  and  his  asso- 
ciates incapable  of  afterwards  bearing  any  rule  within 
the  domain  of  St.  Jerome.  The  emperor  must  have 
approved  of  his  policy,  or  at  least  must  have  consid- 
ered him  unjustly  treated,  for  he  almost  immediately 

*  En  Yuste :  mal  haya  quien  aqui  lo  edifico ;  a  los  30  de  Augusto, 
1557. 

t  Chap.  n.  p.  44  ;  Chap.  IV.  p.  92. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  147 

afterwards  offered  him  a  mitre  in  the  Indies.  But  Or- 
tega declined  the  honor,  saying  that  the  friar  whom  his 
superiors  had  pronounced  unfit  to  hold  a  priory  must 
be  unfit  to  preside  over  a  diocese,  and  that  he  consid- 
ered it  to  be  his  duty  to  submit,  as  a  private  monk,  to 
the  penance  imposed  upon  him.  In  1553,  while  he  was 
still  general,  there  issued  from  an  Antwerp  press  the 
charming  story  of  Lazarillo  de  Tormes,  destined  to  be 
a  model  of  racy  Castillian,  and  to  found  a  new  school 
of  literature.  Leaving  the  courts  and  the  castles,  the 
peers  and  paladins  of  conventional  romance,  the  witty 
novelist  had  taken  for  his  hero  a  little  dirty  urchin  of 
Salamanca,  and  sent  him  forth  to  delight  Europe 
with  his  exquisite  humor,  keen  satire,  and  vivid  pic- 
tures of  Spanish  life,  and  to  win  a  popularity  which 
was  not  equalled  until  the  great  knight  of  La  Mancha 
took  the  field.  The  authorship,  however,  remained 
unacknowledged  and  unknown  ;  and  it  was  not  until 
after  the  death  of  Diego  Hurtado  de  Mendoza  that  it 
came  to  be  generally  ascribed  to  that  accomplished 
statesman,  soldier,  and  historian.  But  at  the  decease 
of  Ortega  there  was  found  in  his  cell  a  manuscript 
of  the  work,  from  which  the  fathers  of  Alba  conjec- 
tured that  it  must  have  been  written  in  his  college 
days  at  Salamanca.*     Whether  the  glory  belong  to 

*  The  story  is  told  by  Siguen^a,  II.  p.  184.  N.  Antonio  includes 
Lazarillo  among  the  works  of  Mendoza,  but  he  says  that  some  people 
still  ascribed  it  to  Ortega.  Mr.  Ticknor,  in  his  excellent  and  discerning 
criticism  on  Mendoza  {History  of  Spanish  Literature,  3  vols.,  8vo,  New 
York,  1849, 1.  513)  raises  no  doubt  as  to  the  authorship,  without,  how- 
ever, stating  on  what,  besides  internal  evidence,  Mendoza's  claim  rests. 
The  first  edition  was  printed  at  Antwerp,  1553  ;  another  appeared  at 
Burgos,  in  1554,  and  a  third  at  Antwerp,  in  the  same  year ;  yet  the  first 
mentioned  by  Antonio  is  that  of  Tarragona,  1586  ;  so  ignorant  was  the 


148  THE    CLOISTER   LIFE    OF 

the  layman  or  the  churchman,  the  monk  who  was  ca- 
pable of  so  chivalrously  refusing  a  mitre,  and  who 
was  supposed  to  be  capable  of  writing  the  first  and 
one  of  the  best  modern  fictions,  must  have  been  a 
man  of  noble  character,  and  of  remarkable  powers. 

The  ignorance  and  gossiping  of  the  friars  were  not 
the  sole  local  annoyances  suffered  by  the  emperor  and 
his  household.  The  villagers  of  Quacos  were  the 
unruly  Protestants  who  troubled  his  reign  in  the  Vera. 
Although  these  rustics  shared  amongst  them  the 
greater  part  of  the  hundred  ducats  which  he  dispensed 
every  month  in  charity,  they  teased  him  by  constant 
acts  of  petty  aggression,  by  impounding  his  cows, 
poaching  his  fish-ponds,  and  stealing  his  fruit.  One 
fellow  having  sold  the  crop  on  a  cherry-tree  to  the 
emperor's  purveyor  at  double  its  value,  and  for  ready 
money,  when  he  found  that  it  was  left  ungathered,  re- 
sold it  to  a  fresh  purchaser,  who  of  course  left  nothing 
but  bare  boughs  behind  him.  Weary  of  this  persecu- 
tion, Charles  at  last  sent  for  Don  Juan  de  Vega,  pres- 
ident of  Castille,  who  arrived  on  the  25th  of  August 
at  Luis  Quixada's  house,  in  the  guilty  village.  Next 
morning  he  had  an  interview  of  an  hour  and  a  half 
with  the  emperor ;  and  spent  the  day  following  in 
concerting  measures  with  the  licentiate  Murga,  the 
rural  judge,  to  whom  he  administered  a  sharp  rebuke, 
which  that  functionary  in  his  turn  visited  upon  the 
unruly  rustics.  The  president  returned  to  Valladolid 
on  the  28th  ;  and  a  few  days  afterwards  several  cul- 
prits were  apprehended.     But  whilst  CastiUian  jus- 


laborious  bibliographer  of  Spain  —  being  also  a  churchman  —  of  one  of 
the  most  curious  and  valuable  portions  of  her  literature,  the  novels. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  149 

\ 

tice  was  taking  its  usual  deliberate  course,  some  of 
them  who  had  relatives  amongst  the  Jeromites  of 
Yuste,  by  the  influence  of  their  friends  at  court, 
wrought  upon  the  emperor's  good  nature  so  far,  that 
he  himself  begged  that  the  sentence  might  be  light.* 

Of  the  unofficial  visitors  who  paid  their  respects 
during  this  year  at  Yuste,  one  of  the  earliest  and  cer- 
tainly the  most  remarkable  was  Juan  Gines  Sepul- 
veda,  the  historian,  whose  flowing  style  and  pure  La- 
tinity  gained  him  the  title  of  the  Livy  of  Spain.  This 
able  writer  had  formerly  held  the  post  of  chaplain  to 
the  emperor,  and  tutor  to  prince  Philip ;  and  was  now 
one  of  the  historiographers-royal,  in  which  capacity  hp 
had  retired  to  his  estate  at  Pozoblanco,  near  Cordova, 
to  compose  his  annals  of  the  emperor's  reign,  and 
cultivate  his  flower-garden.  Amongst  other  pieces  of 
sinecure  church  preferment  which  had  fallen  to  his  lot, 
was  the  archpriesthood  of  Ledesma,  to  which  he  had 
been  recently  presented.  The  fine  weather  early  in 
March  had  tempted  him  to  set  out  for  this  new  bene- 
fice ;  but  being  overtaken  in  the  mountains  of  Gua- 
dalupe by  storms,  which  even  the  tempest-stilling  bells 
of  Our  Lady's  holy  church  f  could  not  calm,  he  was 
glad  to  turn  aside  to  the  Vera  to  pay  his  homage  to 
the  emperor,  and  to  visit  his  old  friend  Van  Male. 
Charles,  who  had  not  seen  him  for  eighteen  years,  re- 
ceived him  with  great  cordiality,  and  conversed  with 
him  with  much  interest  on  the  progress  of  his  history. 
The  learned  traveller  was  highly  delighted  with  his 
patron's  kindness,   the  beauty  of  the  place,  and  his 


*  SigueTi(;a,  III.  198.. 

t  Talavera,  Uist.  de  Na.  Sera,  de  Guadalupe,  fol-  16. 
13* 


150  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

few  days  of  repose  in  Van  Male's  house  at  Quacos. 
He  had  taken  the  mountain  road  by  which  Charles 
had  come  to  Yuste.  The  first  part  of  his  journey, 
although  toilsome,  was  ease  itself  to  what  was  now 
before  him.  Crossing  the  Puertonuevo  in  a  storm 
would  try  the  nerve  and  task  the  endurance  of  a 
smuggler  in  his  prime  ;  and  it  is  therefore  not  sur- 
prising that  it  nearly  cost  the  sedentary  doctor  of  sixty 
his  life.  He  said  the  ascent  was  like  the  path  of  vir- 
tue, as  described  by  Hesiod,  inasmuch  as  it  was  long, 
and  steep,  and  rugged  ;  but  very  unlike  it,  inasmuch 
as  it  led,  not  to  an  easy  plain,  but  to  a  descent  yet 
more  frightful  than  the  acclivity.*  He  had  ridden 
up ;  but  the  rocks  w^hich  now  frowned  over  his  head, 
and  the  chasms  which  yawned  at  every  turn  beneath 
him,  so  terrified  him,  that  he  dismounted  from  his 
mule,  and  walked  eight  miles  in  the  mud,  through  al- 
ternate rain  and  snow.  He  arrived  at  Alba  more  dead 
than  alive  ;  and  in  spite  of  good  nursing  in  the  house 
of  a  warm  canon  of  Salamanca,  the  month  of  June 
found  him  in  his  parsonage  at  Ledesma,  still  com- 
plaining of  the  cold  which  he  had  caught  in  that  wild 
mountain  march.f 

Don  Luis  de  Avila  was  a  frequent  visitor  at  Yuste. 
Charles  had  always  been  fond  of  the  society  of  his 
lively  Quintius  Curtius ;  and  the  historian  regarded 
the  emperor  with  that  enthusiastic  admiration  with 
which  a  great  man  seldom  fails  to  inspire  his  follow- 
ers.    The  lords  of  Mirabel  long  preserved,  probably 

*  The  Works  and  the  Days,  V.  288. 

t  He  calls  it  "  iter  totius  Hispaniae  difficillimnm " ;  describing  it  in 
the  letter  to  Van  Male,  in  his  Epistola,  sm.  8vd,  Salamant.  1557,  Ep. 
CII.,  fol.  274,  or  Opera,  4to,  Madrid,  1780,  III.  p.  351. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  151 

still  possess,  an  heirloom  brought  into  the  Zuniga 
family  by  Avila,  —  a  marble  bust  of  his  favorite  hero, 
chiselled  by  the  masterly  hand  of  the  elder  Leoni,  and 
inscribed  with  this  loyal  doggrel, 

Carolo  quinto  et  e  assai  questo, 
Perche  si  sa  per  tutto  il  mondo  il  resto. 

Avila  likewise  caused  some  of  the  battles  of  the  im- 
perial captain  to  be  painted  in  fresco  on  various  ceil- 
ings of  the  noble  mansion,  and  they  were  now  actually 
in  progress  under  his  own  superintendence.  The 
name  of  the  artist  has  not  survived,  and  his  work,  long 
since  faded,  has  proved  the  truth  of  the  adage  which 
the  old  marquis  of  Mirabel  had  shortly  before  written 
over  one  of  the  windows,  —  todo  pasa,  —  all  things 
pass  away.* 

There  is  a  heartiness  in  Avila's  flattery  which  says 
much  for  its  honesty,  and  somewhat  excuses  its  ex- 
travagance. The  bold  dragoon  concludes  his  German 
commentaries  with  this  blast  of  the  true  Castillian 
trumpet :  "  When  Caesar  had  subdued  Gaul,  after  a 
ten  years'  war,  he  made  the  whole  world  ring  with  his 
story ;  and  only  to  have  crossed  the  Rhine  and  passed 
eighteen  days  in  Germany  seemed  enough  to  vindi- 
cate the  power  and  dignity  of  the  nation  which  ruled 
the  world.  In  less  than  a  year  our  emperor  conquered 
this  province,  whose  matchless  valor  has  been  con- 
fessed both  by  ancient  and  modern  times.  In  thirty 
years  Charlemagne  subjugated  Saxony ;  our  emperor 
was  master  of  it  all  in  less  than  three  months.  The 
greatness  of  this  war  demands  a  nobler  pen  than  mine, 

*A.  Ponz:  Viageen  Espalia,  18  vols.,  sm.  8vo,  Madrid,  1784,  VII. 
117,118,  122. 


152 


THE    CLOISTER   LIFE    OF 


which  tells  nothing  but  the  naked  truth,  and  what  I 
have  seen  with  my  own  eyes  of  the  exploits  of  him 
who  ought  as  far  to  excel  in  fame  the  great  captains 
of  past  ages,  as  he  excels  them  all  in  valor  and  in 
virtue."  * 

The  adulation  of  bishop  Giovio  was  as  distasteful 
to  Charles  as  the  Protestant  abuse  of  Sleidan ;  and 
he  was  wont  to  call  them  his  two  liars.  But  Avila's 
volume,  bound  in  crimsori  velvet  and  silver,  adorned 
his  book-shelf;  and  the  door  of  his  cabinet  was  ever 
open  to  the  author.  It  is  characteristic  of  the  times, 
that  it  was  remarked  as  a  singular  favor  that  the  em- 
peror one  day  ordered  a  capon  to  be  reserved  for  the 
grand  commander  from  his  own  well-supplied  board."f 
It  may  seem  strange  that  a  retired  prince,  who  had 
never  been  a  lover  of  pomp,  should  not  have  broken 
through  the  ceremonial  law  which  enjoined  a  mon- 
arch to  eat  alone,  and  which,  when  on  the  throne,  he 
had  broken  through  once,  though  once  only,  in  favor 
of  the  duke  of  Alba.  J  Still,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  he  was  a  Spaniard,  living  among  Spaniards,  with 
whom  punctilio  was  a  kind  of  piety ;  and  that  near  a 
century  later  the  force  of  forms  was  still  so  strong,  that 
Richelieu  himself,  when  most  wanting  in  ships,  pre- 
ferred that  the  Spanish  fleet  should  retire  from  the 
blockade  of  Rochelle  rather  than  its  admiral  should 
wear  his  grandee-hat  in  the  Most  Christian  presence. 

The  emperor  was  fond  of  talking  over  his  cam- 
paigns with  the  veteran  who  had  shared  and  recorded 

*  Avila:    Comentario    de    la  Guerra  de  Alemana,    sra.  8vo,  Anvers, 
1549,  p   180. 

t  Vera:  Vida  de  Carlos  V.,  p.  251. 
}  Rustant :   Vida  del  D.  de  Alba,  I.  182. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  153 

them.  One  day,  in  the  course  of  such  conversation, 
Don  Luis  spoke  of  the  frescoes  which  were  in  progress 
in  his  house  at  Plasencia,  and  said  that  on  one  of  the 
ceilings  was  to  be  painted  the  battle  of  Renti,  and 
the  Frenchmen  flying  before  the  soldiers  of  Castille. 
"  Not  so,"  said  the  emperor,  "  let  the  painter  modify 
this  if  he  can,  for  it  was  no  headlong  flight,  but  an 
orderly  retreat."  *  This  was  not  the  less  candid  be- 
cause French  historians  claimed  the  victory  for  France, 
and  recounted  with  pride  the  captured  colors  and  can- 
non, amongst  which  were  the  two  huge  pieces  known 
as  the  emperor's  pistols.f  Considering  that  the  ac- 
tion had  been  fought  only  three  or  four  years  before  it 
is  reported  to  have  been  thus  grossly  misrepresented, 
it  is  possible  that  Renti  may  have  been  substituted 
by  mistake  for  the  name  of  some  less  doubtful  field. 
But  Avila  was  of  easy  faith  when  the  honor  of  Cas- 
tille and  the  emperor  were  concerned ;  and  he.  may 
well  be  supposed  capable  of  some  such  loyal  and  pa- 
triotic inaccuracy  in  fresco,  when  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  print  his  belief  that  the  miracle  which  had  been 
wrought  for  Joshua  and  the  chosen  people  in  the  val- 
ley of  Ajalon,  had  been  repeated  on  behalf  of  Charles 
and  his  Spaniards  on  the  banks  of  the  Elbe.J  Some 
years  after,  the  duke  of  Alba,  who  had  also  been  at 
Muhlberg,  was  asked  by  the  king  of  France  whether 
he  had  observed  that  the  sun  stood  still.  "  I  was  so 
busy  that  day,"  said  the  cautious  soldier,  "  with  what 
was  passing  on  earth,  that  I  had  no  time  to  notice 
what  took  place  in  heaven." 

*  Vera :  Vtda  de  Carlos  V.,  p.  252. 

t  L.  Favyn  :  Hist,  de  Navarre,  fol.,  Paris,  1612,  p.  814. 

t  Avila :  Comentario,  fol.  70. 


154  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

A  visit  which  Avila  paid  to  the  convent  in  August 
seems  to  have  been  prompted  by  an  official  letter  ad- 
dressed by  the  princess-regent  to  the  authorities  of  Pla- 
sencia,  and  containing,  or  supposed  to  contain,  a  hint 
that  the  emperor  proposed  soon  to  set  out  for  Navarre. 
The  city  being  greatly  excited  by  the  rumors  thus 
raised,  the  grand  commander  mounted  his  horse  and 
rode  up  to  the  Vera  to  make  inquiries  into  the  state 
of  matters  at  Yuste.  The  recluse  was  disposed  rather 
to  pique  than  to  gratify  the  curiosity  of  the  knight  of 
the  green  cross.  Writing  on  his  return  to  the  secre- 
tary of  state,  Avila  said,  "  I  have  left  Fray  Carlos  in 
a  very  calnrr  and  contented  mood,  not  at  all  mistrust- 
ing his  strength,  but  believing  himself  quite  equal  to 
the  exerticfn  of  moving  from  his  retreat.  Since  I  was 
there  last,  all  his  ideas  on  this  head  have  been 
changed ;  and  I  could  believe  his  undertaking  any 
thing  from  love  to  his  son,  knowing  as  I  do  his  brave 
spirit  and  his  ancient  habits,  having  been  reared,  as 
he  was,  in  war,  like  the  salamander  in  the  furnace. 
The  princess's  letter  has  set  us  all  on  the  tiptoe  of 
expectation  here,  and  I  do  not  think  that  there  is  a 
man  among  us  who  would  stay  behind  if  the  emperor 
took  the  field.  But  if  this  bravata,  as  they  say  in 
Italy,  is  really  to  be  executed,  I  pray  God  it  may  be 
done  speedily,  for  the  weather  looks  threatening,  and 
Navarre,  with  its  early  winter,  is  not  Estremadura."  * 

Amongst  other  visitors  at  Yuste  was  Don  Francisco 
Bolivar,  paymaster  of  the  navy,  who  came  on  the  16th 
of  September,  and  had  a  long  audience  next  day,  to 


♦  Luis  de  Avila  to  Vazquez ;  Plascncia,  24th  August,  1557.     Gronza- 
lez  MS. 


THE  EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  155 

lay  before  the  emperor  certain  information  about  the 
Turkish  naval  force,  and  to  tell  him  that  the  fleet 
of  Solyman,  which  had  been  menacing  the  western 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  had  now  steered  for  the 
Levant.  For  this  good  news,  Charles  presented  him, 
when  he  took  leave,  with  a  gold  chain.  A  few  weeks 
later,  on  the  6th  of  October,  Don  Martin  de  Aven- 
daiio,  who  had  commanded  a  squadron  newly  ar- 
rived from  Peru,  was  received  with  a  welcome  so 
hearty  that  Quixada  noted  it  as  remarkable  in  his  let- 
ter to  the  secretary  of  state.  Perhaps  the  excellent 
health  which  the  emperor  at  that  time  enjoyed  might 
have  been  partly  the  cause  of  this  cordiality,  for  the 
chamberlain  said,  in  the  same  letter,  that  he  was  un- 
usually well,  "  very  plump  and  fresh-colored,  and  ate 
and  slept  better  than  he  did  himself."  The  admiral 
was  sent  on  his  way  rejoicing,  with  a  strong  letter  of 
recommendation  to  the  king. 

The  visitors  at  Yuste  were  generally  envoys,  or 
official  personages.  Avila  and  the  count  of  Oropesa 
and  his  brother  were  amongst  the  few  exceptions. 
The  neighboring  prelates  and  grandees  continued  to 
send  their  contributions  to  the  imperial  larder.  Oro- 
pesa kept  it  supplied  with  game  from  the  forest  and 
the  hill;  the  Jeromites  of  Guadalupe,  rich  in  lands 
and  beeves,  presented  calves,  lambs  fattened  on  bread, 
and  delicate  fruits ;  and  the  bishops  of  Segovia,  Mon- 
donedo,  and  Salamanca  were  careful  to  put  in  simi- 
lar evidence  that  they  had  not  forgotten  the  giver  of 
their  mitres.  Occasionally,  the  donors  of  these  dain- 
ties appeared  to  have  nourished  a  hope  of  being  rec- 
ompensed with  the  loaves  and  fishes  of  court  patron- 
age and  favor.     A  few  leagues  north  of  the  convent, 


156  THE    CLOISTER   LIFE    OF 

at  the  Alpine  town  of  Bejar,  was  a  noble  castle  of  the 
chief  family  of  Zuniga,  created  dukes  of  the  place  by 
Isabella  the  Catholic,  a  family  known  afterwards  both 
in  arts  and  arms,  and  immortalized  by  the  dedication 
of  Don  Quixote.  The  mules  sent  to  Yuste  by  the 
duchess  were  in  due  time  followed  by  the  lady's  chap- 
lain, charged  with  a  request  that  the  emperor  would 
graciously  assist  the  family  in  obtaining  a  boon  for 
which  they  had  long  been  soliciting  the  crown,  the 
restoration  of  the  older  dukedom  of  Plasencia.  Charles 
answered  his  fair  suitor  somewhat  bluntly,  that  he 
considered  the  claim  unfounded,  and  that  he  would 
burden  his  conscience  with  no  such  matter. 

Towards  the  end  of  September,  the  queens  of 
France  and  Hungary  were  expected  in  the  Vera  on  a 
visit  to  their  brother.  The  castle  of  Xarandilla  was 
placed  at  their  disposal  by  Oropesa,  and  prepared  for 
their  reception  under  the  superintendence  of  Quixada 
and  Van  Male.  The  queens  set  out  from  Vallado- 
lid  on  the  18th  of  September,  accompanied  by  their 
niece,  the  regent,  who  was  going  to  her  pious  retreat 
at  Abrojo,  and,  travelling  by  easy  stages,  they  reached 
Xarandilla  in  ten  days.  On  the  28th  they  came  to 
Yuste,  attended  by  the  bishop  of  Plasencia,  and  saw 
the  emperor  for  about  an  hour.  During  their  stay  of 
ten  or  eleven  weeks  in  the  Vera,  queen  Eleanor,  be- 
ing in  very  feeble  health,  and  easily  fatigued,  even  by 
the  motion  of  her  litter,  was  able  to  visit  Yuste  only 
three  times.  On  one  of  these  occasions,  she  and  her 
sister  came  over  in  the  morning  to  Quacos,  and  hav- 
ing dined  there,  spent  some  hours  at  the  convent,  and 
returned  to  the  village  to  sleep.  Quixada  was  some- 
what scandalized  at  this  arrangement,  and  proposed 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  157 

an  attempt  to  lodge  the  ladies  for  one  night  at  Yuste ; 
but  Charles  would  not  hear  of  it,  nor  would  he  even 
offer  them  a  dinner.  The  queen  of  Hungary  was  still 
robust  enough  for  the  saddle ;  she  delighted  in  the 
exercise ^of  her  limbs  and  tongue;  and  she  was  there- 
fore frequently  on  horseback,  riding  through  the  fad- 
ing forest  to  her  brother's  inhospitable  gate. 

The  queens  had  not  yet  determined  where  to  estab- 
lish their  permanent  abode,  and  wished  to  be  guided 
by  the  emperor's  advice.  They  had  at  one  time 
thought  of  Plasencia,  but  upon  this  he  put  his  decid- 
ed negative.  They  next  cast  their  eyes  upon  Guada- 
laxara,  in  Castille ;  the  crown  having  a  great  extent 
of  land  in  and  around  that  town,  the  rights  and  privi- 
leges of  which  the  king  was  willing  to  make  over  to 
them  for  their  lives.  The  town  boasting  of  no  man- 
sion suitable  to  their  rank  but  the  palace  of  the  duke 
of  Infantado,  they  applied  for  the  use  of  that  truly 
noble  pile.  But  the  duke,  who  had  never  been  very 
cordial  with  the  Austrian  royal  family,  excused  giving 
up  his  house  on  the  plea  of  ill-health ;  and  in  spite  of 
the  regent's  representations  that,  as  it  had  been  given 
to  the  grand  cardinal  Mendoza  by  Isabella  the  Cath- 
olic, it  was  scarcely  polite  to  refuse  to  lend  it  for  a 
time  to  her  granddaughters,  he  continued  to  urge  this 
plea  in  a  number  of  letters,  equally  courtly,  copious, 
and  tiresome.  At  the  close  of  the  year,  Quixada, 
writing  to  his  friend,  the  secretary  Eraso,  hinted  to 
that  functionary  that,  as  the  queens  still  thought  of 
residing  at  Guadalaxara,  it  would  be  well  for  him  to 
place  at  their  disposition  a  grange  which  he  possessed 
in  the  neighborhood,  where  they  might  amuse  them- 
selves in  fishing  or  in  the  chase.     Both  of  the  royal 

14 


158  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

widows,  however,  died  before  it  was  settled  where 
they  were  to  live. 

Their  chief  business  at  Yuste,  at  this  time,  was  the 
long-talked-of  meeting  between  queen  Eleanor  and 
the  infanta  of  Portugal.  To  see  this  daughter  once 
more  was  the  sole  wish  of  the  poor  mother's  heart. 
The  daughter,  on  the  other  hand,  seemed  hardly  less 
anxious  to  avoid  the  interview.  Long  after  the  king 
of  Portugal  had  given  his  consent,  and  even  after  his 
death,  she  continued  to  raise  up  obstacles  in  the  way, 
in  which  she  was  countenanced  by  her  uncle,  the  car- 
dinal Henry.  Father  Francis  Borja  used  his  influ- 
ence in  vain.  The  Spanish  ambassador  at  Lisbon, 
Don  Sancho  de  Cordova,  who  met  the  queens  at 
Xarandilla  and  Yuste,  gave  so  unfavorable  an  account 
of  her  intentions,  that  Eleanor  began  to  despair  alto- 
gether of  realizing  her  long-cherished  hope.  The  em- 
peror, at  her  request,  himself  wrote  to  his  niece,  urg- 
ing compliance  with  her  mother's  very  reasonable 
wishes ;  and,  after  many  delays  and  a  sham  illness, 
the  reluctant  damsel  consented.  Preparations  were 
immediately  set  on  foot  for  receiving  her  at  Badajoz 
with  due  honor,  and  sixteen  nobles  and  prelates  were 
chosen  to  wait  upon  her  at  the  frontier.  Among 
them  were  the  duke  of  Escalona,  the  count  of  Oro- 
pesa,  the  grand  commander  of  Alcantara,  and  the 
bishops  of  Coria  and  Salamanca. 

Many  of  the  difficulties  for  which  the  infanta  was 
made  responsible,  no  doubt,  really  arose  from  the  ill- 
feeling  which  at  this  time  prevailed  between  the 
courts  of  Lisbon  and  Valladolid.  While  these  nesro- 
tiations  were  pending,  a  Portuguese  courier  was  ar- 
rested on  suspicion  of  being  a  French  spy,  and  on  his 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  159 

person  was  found  an  autograph  letter  from  the  king 
of  France,  in  which  the  queen-regent  was  informed  of 
the  state  of  the  war  in  the  Netherlands,  and  entreated 
to  lend  her  assistance  against  Spain.  This  letter  was 
forwarded  to  Yuste  by  secretary  Vazquez,  with  a  re- 
mark that  it  was  better  to  trust  even  Frenchmen  than 
some  Portuguese.  The  emperor,  on  the  other  hand, 
told  Quixada  that  he  thought  the  letter  might  have 
been  UTitten  for  the  purpose  of  being  intercepted,  and 
of  exciting  suspicion  and  discord,  and  that  the  boast- 
ing of  a  Frenchman  ought  never  to  be  taken  serious- 
ly. But  he  clearly  indicated  his  own  feelings  of  the 
ill-will  entertained  at  Lisbon  towards  his  son's  govern- 
ment, in  conveying  to  Vazquez  the  official  informa- 
tion which  he  had  received  from  thence  of  a  revolt  in 
Peru,  and  the  death  of  the  viceroy,  the  marquis  of 
Canete.  "  Although  I  well  know,"  he  wrote,  "  that 
the  court  of  Portugal  would  not  have  sent  me  this 
news,  had  it  been  true,  I  should  wish  to  ascertain  the 
ground  whereon  such  a  rumor  rests."  * 

The  queens  took  leave  of  the  emperor  on  the  14th 
of  December,  and  the  next  day  set  out  for  Badajoz. 
Their  departure  was  a  great  relief  to  Luis  Quixada, 
who  had  to  attend  to  their  comforts  at  Xarandilla,  in 
addition  to  his  daily  task  of  governing  the  emperor's 
Flemings,  and  keeping  on  good  terms  with  his  friars. 
The  supplies  required  by  their  numerous  retinue  had 
also  produced  a  sort  of  famine  in  the  Vera,  and  had 
raised  the  price  of  mutton  to  a  real,  or  twopence-half- 
penny, a  pound.  The  licentiate  Murga,  of  Quacos, 
was  intrusted  with  the  arrangements  on  the  road,  and 

*  Emperor  to  Vazquez,  22d  September,  1557.    Gonzalez  MS. 


160  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

the  queens  were  everywhere  received  with  public  at- 
tention and  respect.  At  Truxillo  the  authorities 
wished  to  give  a  public  festival  in  their  honor,  which, 
however,  the  royal  ladies  graciously  declined;  and 
resting  on  the  feast  of  St.  Thomas,  at  Merida,  they 
arrived  on  Christmas  eve  at  Badajoz,  where  Don  Luis 
de  Avila  was  waiting  to  receive  them. 

They  were  fortunate  in  the  weather,  which  was 
clear  and  calm,  except  on  the  day  which  they  spent 
in  the  old  Roman  city.  But  on  the  day  after  they 
left  Xarandilla,  a  terrible  hurricane  visited  that  part 
of  the  Vera.  At  Yuste,  two  of  the  emperor's  chim- 
neys were  blown  down,  and  one  took  fire ;  and  many 
of  his  cedars  and  citrons  measured  their  length  upon 
the  discomfited  parterres.  Two  houses  fell  at  Xaran- 
dilla, and  another  was  overthrown  at  Quacos. 

Father  Borja  had  been  selected  by  the  princess- 
regent  for  a  special  and  secret  mission  to  Lisbon  in 
the  autumn,  on  the  delicate  subject  of  the  regency  of 
Portugal.  He  received  her  summons  at  Simancas, 
where  he  had  founded  a  small  Jesuits'  house,  and 
whither  he  loved  to  escape  from  the  distractions 
of  the  court,  to  unstinted  penance  and  prayer.  The 
sun  of  September  was  scorching  the  naked  plains  of 
the  Duero,  and  the  good  Jesuit  was  in  feeble  health. 
Nevertheless,  he  immediately  obeyed  the  regent's 
mandate,  and  repaired  to  Yuste,  by  her  direction,  to 
hold  counsel  with  the  emperor ;  *  after  which,  scorn- 


*  Ribadeneira :  Vida  de  P.  F.  Borja,  fol.  105.  Gonzalez  is  inclined 
to  doubt  the  fact;  yet  his  MS.  contains  a  letter  (30th  August,  1557) 
from  the  princess  to  the  emperor,  in  which  she  announces  her  intention 
of  sending  Borja  to  Lisbon ;  and  one  from  Gaztelu  to  Vazquez  (28th 
December,  1557),  which  proves  that  he  had  been  there.    As  it  is  ex- 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  161 

ing  repose  in  the  cool  woodlands,  he  at  once  took  the 
road  to  Portugal  across  the  charred  wastes  of  Estre- 
madura.  This  haste  and  the  heat  together  threw  him 
into  a  fever,  of  which  he  nearly  died  in  the  town  of 
Evora ;  and  when  once  more  able  to  resume  his  jour- 
ney, he  was  nearly  drowned  in  a  squall  in  crossing 
the  Tagus  to  Lisbon.  The  queen  Catherine,  the  car- 
dinal Henry,  and  the  infanta  Mary,  all  vied  with  each 
other  in  nursing  him  ;  but  he  did  not  succeed  in  the 
objects  of  his  mission,  for  he  obtained  no  promise  of 
the  regency  for  the  Spanish  princess ;  nor  could  he 
even  prevail  upon  the  Portuguese  infanta  to  perform 
the  very  simple  duty  of  setting  out  to  meet  her  wid- 
owed mother.  He  was  again  at  Yuste  about  the 
20th  of  December.  The  emperor  paid  him  the  unu- 
sual compliment  of  lodging  him  in  the  palace,  and 
even  entered  into  the  preparation  which  Luis  Quixa- 
da  was  making  for  his  reception.  The  mayordomo 
having  hung  the  walls  of  his  chamber  with  tapestry, 
the  emperor,  judging  that  it  would  rather  offend  than 
please  the  Jesuit,  ordered  it  to  be  taken  down,  and  its 
place  to  be  supplied  with  some  black  cloth,  of  which 
he  despoiled  his  own  anteroom.* 

Bo  ja  remained  at  the  convent  for  some  days,  and  of 
course  had  frequent  interviews  with  the  emperor.  It 
was  probably  now  that  Charles  returned  to  him  a 
number  of  letters,  written  at  his  request  by  the  Jesuit, 

tremely  probable  that  the  Jesuit  would  have  been  instructed  to  see  the 
emperor  on  his  way  to  Portugal,  and  as  there  are  several  gaps  in  the 
correspondence  in  September,  I  am  inclined  to  suppose  that  some  letters 
may  have  been  lost,  and  I  have  therefore  followed  Ribadeneira. 

*  Nieremberg :  Vida  de  Borja,  p.  136.    This  story  is  somewhat  doubt- 
ful, not  because  it  is  in  itself  improbable,  but  because,  if  true,  it  would 
hare  been  probably  mentioned  in  the  letters  of  Qoixada  to  Vazquez. 
14* 


162  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

on  the  politics  and  politicians  of  the  court  of  Valla- 
dolid.  "  You  may  be  sure,"  said  he,  on  restoring 
them,  "  that  no  one  but  myself  has  seen  them."  The 
confidence  thus  reposed  by  the  shrewdest  of  princes 
in  Borja's  judgment  and  observation  shows  how 
keenly  the  things  of  earth  may  be  scanned  by  eyes 
which  seem  wholly  fixed  upon  heaven.* 

The  emperor  likewise  told  his  friend  of  a  dispute, 
between  two  nobles,  which  had  been  referred  to  him 
for  decision,  and  on  which  he  desired  to  have  his 
opinion,  as  he  probably  knew  the  rights  of  the  case. 
The  matter  in  dispute  was  the  title  to  certain  lands ; 
and  the  parties  were  Borja's  son,  Charles,  duke  of 
Gandia,  and  Don  Alonso  de  Cardona,  admiral  of 
Aragon.  Thus  appealed  to,  the  father  behaved  with 
that  stoical  indifference  to  the  voice  of  blood,  which, 
while  it  shocked  some  of  his  lay  admirers,  never 
fails  to  command  the  loud  applause  of  his  rev- 
erend biographers.  "I  know  not,"  he  said,  "whose 
cause  is  the  just  one,  but  I  pray  your  majesty  not 
only"  not  to  allow  the  admiral  to  be  wronged,  but  to 
show  him  all  the  favor  compatible  with  equity." 
When  the  emperor  expressed  some  not  unnatural  sur- 
prise, the  Cato  of  the  company  explained  the  singular 
tone  of  his  request,  somewhat  lamely  as  it  seems,  by 
saying  that  perhaps  the  admiral  needed  the  disputed 
property  more  than  the  duke  did,  and  that  it  was 
good  to  assist  the  necessitous.! 

During  his  stay  at  Yuste,  Borja  was  treated  with 
marked  distinction.     Not  only  had  his  host  arranged 


*  Sandoval,  II.  p.  833. 

t  Nieremberg  :  llda  de  Borja,  p.  155. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  163 

the  upholstery  of  his  chamber,  but  he  also  sent  him 
each  day  the  most  approved  dish  from  his  well-sup- 
plied board.  When  duty  once  more  required  the 
father  to  take  his  staff  in  his  hand,  he  carried  with 
him  two  hundred  ducats  for  alms,  which  Quixada 
had  been  directed  by  the  emperor  to  force  upon  his 
acceptance.  "  It  is  a  small  sum,"  said  the  chamber- 
lain ;  "  but  in  comparison  with  my  lord's  present  reve- 
nues, it  is  perhaps  the  largest  bounty  he  ever  bestowed 
at  one  time."  f 

t  Kibadeneira  :  Vida  de  Borja,  p.  99. 


164  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE  DEATH  OF  QUEEN  ELEANOR. 

The  year  1558  did  not  open  auspiciously  at  Yuste. 
The  emperor  continued  to  be  troubled  with  flying 
gout:  he  complained  of  itching  and  tingling  in  his 
legs,  from  the  knees  downwards ;  and  he  was  some- 
times seized  with  fits  of  vomiting.  On  the  7th  of 
January  he  was  unable  to  leave  his  bed,  or  to  see  the 
admiral  of  Aragon,  who  had  come  to  state  certain 
grievances  which  he  had  against  the  master  of  Mon- 
tesa,  and  who  was  therefore  dismissed  to  spend  a  few 
days  in  the  pilgrimage  to  Guadalupe.  The  season 
itself  seemed  to  be  unhealthy,  for  so  many  members 
of  the  household  were  ill  that  Gaztelu  proposed  to 
reinforce  the  medical  staff  with  another  doctor,  one 
Juan  Muiios,  a  good  physician  and  surgeon,  who  had 
been  sent  by  the  regent  to  attend  upon  her  father  at 
Laredo. 

On  the  night  of  the  8th  of  January,  the  palace  was 
broken  into,  and  a  sum  of  eight  hundred  ducats,  set 
apart  for  charitable  uses,  stolen  from  the  emperor's 
wardrobe.  The  licentiate  Murga  was  immediately 
set  to  discover  the  robbers,  but  his  perquisitions  at- 
tained no  satisfactory  end.  Some  of  the  household 
were  supposed  to  have  been  concerned,  but  the  em- 
peror would  not  permit  the  persons  suspected  to  be 
subjected  to  the  torture,  the  usual  mode  of  compelling 


THE    EMPEROR   CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  165 

evidence  in  those  days,  "  fearing,"  said  Quixada,  mys- 
teriously, "  that  certain  things  might  come  out  which 
had  better  remain  concealed."  The  culprits  were 
never  found,  nor  was  the  cash  recovered.  It  is  some- 
what remarkable  that  a  few  weeks  afterwards  the  em- 
peror divided  two  thousand  ducats,  as  a  largesse, 
among  his  attendants,  each  receiving  a  sum  propor- 
tioned according  to  the  amount  of  his  salary. 

While  plagued  by  the  depredations  of  thieves,  the 
emperor  was  also  teased  by  the  contentions  of  thief- 
takers.  The  corregidor  of  Plasencia  came  over  to 
Quacos  and  arrested  one  Villa,  an  alguazil  under 
Murga,  on  pretence  that  he  had  exceeded  his  powers 
by  exercising  his  office  within  the  city  jurisdiction, 
which,  as  the  Plasencian  affirmed,  extended  to  the 
limits  of  the  village.  Charles  was  much  displeased, 
and  caused  a  complaint  to  be  lodged  at  Valladolid, 
the  result  of  which  was,  that  the  corregidor  was  sus- 
pended from  his  functions,  and  the  jurisdiction  of 
Quacos  enlarged  by  a  fresh  official  act.  The  offend- 
er, however,  was  forgiven,  and  reinstated  in  a  few 
weeks. 

On  the  10th  of  January,  the  emperor,  though  still 
in  bed,  gave  audience  to  Don  Juan  de  Acuna,  who 
had  recently  come  from  Flanders ;  and  the  same 
day  a  rumor  was  brought  by  the  count  of  Oropesa, 
that  the  duke  of  Alba  had  lately  arrived  at  Bruxelles, 
and  proposed  resigning  the  viceroyalty  of  Naples,  and 
the  command  of  the  army  in  Italy.  At  this  rumor 
Charles  displayed  more  displeasure  than  Quixada 
thought  good  for  his  health ;  and  he  refused  to  listen 
to  the  despatches  from  court  relating  to  the  Italian 
affairs  until  some  days  after  they  had  arrived.     When 


166  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

at  last  he  permitted  them  to  be  read,  and  heard  the 
secret  articles  of  the  treaty  with  the  pope,  he  only  re- 
marked that  the  reserved  conditions  were  as  bad  as 
those  which  had  been  made  public. 

Disgraceful  as  the  treaty  was,  the  anger  felt  by  the 
emperor  may  perhaps  have  arisen  partly  because  the 
negotiations  had  been  conducted  without  his  knowl- 
edge or  consent.  Philip's  love  of  temporizing  was 
notorious ;  "  Time  and  I  against  two,"  *  was  his  favor- 
ite adage ;  and  he  often  bought  time  at  the  price  of 
golden  opportunity.  When  the  victory  of  St.  Quen- 
tin  had  compelled  the  recall  of  Guise,  Rome  was  so 
completely  in  the  power  of  Alba,  that  there  was  no 
visible  motive  for  hastening  the  pope's  deliverance. 
Had  the  king  wished  to  consult  his  father,  an  armis- 
tice of  a  few  weeks  would  have  given  sufficient  time 
for  communication  between  Bruxelles  and  Yuste.  It 
is  therefore  most  probable  that  Philip,  making,  for  rea- 
sons which  he  did  not  wish  to  explain,  a  peace  which 
he  felt  the  emperor  must  disapprove,  purposely  with- 
held from  him  any  knowledge  of  the  treaty  until  it 
was  actually  signed  and  sealed.  It  is  certain  that 
great  and  unaccountable  delay  took  place  in  laying  be- 
fore him  some  of  the  subsequent  transactions  in  Italy. 
Thus,  although  a  rumor  of  Alba's  departure  had 
reached  Yuste  on  the  10th  of  January,  it  was  not 
until  the  27th  that  a  letter,  addressed  to  the  emperor 
by  Alba  himself,  and  dated  so  far  back  as  the  23d  of 
September,  1557,  reached  YuvSte  by  the  hands  of  Luis 
de  Avila.  This  letter  announced  that  peace  had  been 
concluded,   and    described   the   state   of   matters    at 

"  "  Tiempo  y  yo  para  otros  dos." 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  167 

Rome ;  and  further  said,  that,  as  the  king's  affairs  were 
now  in  a  prosperous  condition,  the  duke  intended  soon 
to  avail  himself  of  his  majesty's  promise  that  his  term 
of  service  in  Italy  should  be  short,  and  to  embark  for 
Lombardy ;  after  which  he  trusted  ere  long  to  kiss  the 
emperor's  hand,  and  ask  for  some  repose  from  his  fa- 
tigues of  twenty-five  years.  To  this  letter  Charles 
deigned  no  answer,  nor  did  he  make  any  remark 
upon  it,  but  refused  to  listen  to  its  details  of  public 
affairs,  with  which  he  said  he  was  already  acquainted. 

Alba  was  at  this  time  already  in  the  Netherlands. 
He  was  soon  followed  thither  by  cardinal  CarafFa,  the 
nephew  to  whom  Paul  the  Fourth  intrusted  the  duty 
of  driving  a  bargain  with  the  king  of  Spain  about  the 
money  or  territory  with  which  the  pontifical  family 
were  to  be  bribed  over  to  keep  the  peace ;  *  a  negotia- 
tion which  the  greedy  churchman  prolonged  until  far 
into  the  spring.  Philip  received  the  duke  with  all 
demonstrations  of  favor  and  gratitude,  and  was  about 
to  appoint  him  to  an  important  post  in  Spain.  A 
turn  in  the  tide  of  events,  however,  induced  him  to 
alter  this  resolution,  and  to  keep  him  about  his  own 
person  in  the  capacity  of  president  of  the  council  of 
war. 

The  emperor,  on  the  other  hand,  remained  unrecon- 
ciled to  the  shameful  peace  with  the  CarafFas,  nor  did 
he  ever  forgive  Alba  his  share  in  the  transaction.  The 
duke  was  anxious  to  ascertain  his  opinion  of  his  con- 
duct in  remaining  at  court,  and  to  obtain  permission 
to  visit  him  at»Yuste;  and  Gaztelu  was  therefore  pri- 
vately desired  by  Vazquez  to  note  whatever  fell  from 

*  A.  Andrea :  Guerra  de  Roma,  &c.,  p.  315. 


168  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

him  on  these  topics.  But  Charles  would  neither  ex- 
press his  opinion,  nor  record  the  permission  required, 
showing  a  disposition,  when  his  anger  had  cooled, 
rather  to  avoid  the  subject  than  to  forgive  the  duke. 
Only  two  months  before  his  death,  hearing  that  Philip 
had  presented  Alba  with  one  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand ducats,  he  remarked  that  the  king  of  Spain  did 
more  for  the  duke  of  Alba  than  the  duke  of  Alba  had 
ever  done  for  the  king  of  Spain. 

But  on  the  whole,  the  emperor's  displeasure,  though 
very  mortifying,  was  rather  creditable  to  the  duke. 
In  his  conduct  towards  the  pope.  Alba  had  exactly 
fulfilled  his  sovereign's  commands,  though  he  never 
approved  of  his  policy.  To  kiss  the  toe  of  Paul,  in 
the  name  of  his  master,  he  felt  like  an  act  of  personal 
dishonor  ;  and  he  said,  even  in  the  pontiffs  presence- 
chamber,  to  some  of  the  Italian  leaders,  "  Were  I 
king  of  Spain,  cardinal  Caraffa  should  have  gone  to 
Bruxelles,  and  done,  on  his  knees,  what  I  have  done 
this  day  to  the  pope."*  The  shameful  homage  paid, 
the  pontiff  loaded  him  with  honors  and  caresses;  he 
invited  him  to  dinner ;  and  he  offered  to  make  over  to 
him  all  the  church  patronage  of  the  holy  see  on  his 
estates  in  Spain.  But  this  offer  Alba  declined,  saying 
that  the  concession  and  the  acceptance  of  such  a  boon 
would  be  liable  to  suspicion,  which  it  was  better  to 
avoid.f  Had  the  emperor  known  of  this  noble  act 
of  self-denial,  and  of  the  reluctance  with  which  his  old 
comrade   in    arms  had  signed  the  treaty,   he  would 

m 

*  A.  de  Castro :  Tlie  Spanish  Protestant,  translated  by  F.  Parker,  sm. 
8vo,  London,  1851,  p.  57. 

t  J.  A.  de  Vera :  llda  del  Duque  de  Alva,  p.  73.  See  also  Chap. 
III.  p.  80. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  169 

surely  have  regarded  him  with  different  feelings :  and, 
as  it  would  have  been  easy  for  Alba  to  bring  these 
facts  under  his  notice,  it  is  fair  to  conclude  that  he 
bore  the  undeserved  blame  from  a  sense  of  chivalrous 
honor  to  the  king  whom  he  served. 

For  the  chagrin  suffered  by  the  emperor  in  Italian 
politics,  little  compensation  was  afforded  by  the  state 
of  things  in  the  north.  The  victory  of  St.  Quentin, 
signal  as  it  was,  and  important  as  it  ought  to  have 
been,  had  but  a  slight  and  transitory  effect  upon  the 
fortune  of  the  war.  The  timid  and  procrastinating 
policy  of  Philip  the  Second  had  already  let  slip  the 
opportunities  afforded  by  that  battle,  as  his  blind  big- 
otry afterwards  doomed  to  death  the  gallant  Egmont, 
whose  prowess  had  carried  the  day.  The  French 
king  had  been  allowed,  not  only  to  rally  his  forces,  but 
once  more  to  cross  the  frontiers  of  Flanders.  The 
duke  of  Nevers  retook  Ham;  Genlis  put  twelve  hun- 
dred Spaniards  to  the  sword  at  Chaulny.  Guise, 
burning  to  wipe  away  his  disgraces  in  the  Abruzzi 
and  the  Roman  plains,  suddenly  appeared  before  Cal- 
ais on  the  first  night  of  the  new  year.  Trusting  to  the 
strength  of  the  fortifications,  and  to  the  surrounding 
marshes,  which  made  the  place  almost  an  island  in 
winter,  the  English  government  had  for  some  years 
past,  in  a  spirit  of  fatal  economy,  withdrawn  great 
part  of  the  garrison  at  that  season.  The  only  ap- 
proaches by  land  were  guarded  by  the  forts  of  Ris- 
bank  and  Newnham  Bridge.  These  Guise  attacked 
at  night,  and  was  master  of  in  the  morning.  The 
roar  of  his  artillery  was  heard  at  Dover ;  but  a  storm 
dispersed  the  squadron  which  put  out  with  relief. 
After  some  days  of  desultory  and  desperate  fighting, 

15 


170  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

lord  Wentworth  struck  his  flag ;  the  English  troops 
filed  off  under  a  guard  of  Scottish  archers ;  and  the 
key  of  France,  which  two  centuries  before  had  re- 
sisted, for  eleven  months,  Edward  the  Third,  fresh 
from  Cressy,  was  restored  in  one  week  to  the  house 
of  Valois.  The  honor  of  having  first  conceived  and 
planned  the  enterprise  belonged  to  the  admiral  Co- 
ligny,  still  a  prisoner  of  war  in  the  hands  of  the  duke 
of  Savoy.  But  Guise  had  nobly  retrieved  his  laurels : 
and  it  would  have  been  sufficient  for  his  military 
glory,  had  he  been  victor  only  in  his  two  sieges,  —  the 
most  remarkable  of  the  age,  —  the  heroic  defence  of 
Metz,  and  the  dashing  capture  of  Calais.  France  was 
in  an  uproar  of  exultation  ;  St.  Quentin  was  forgot- 
ten ;  and  loud  and  long  were  the  pseans  of  the  Parisian 
wits,  "  replenished  with  scoffs  and  unmeasured  terms 
against  the  English,"  who,  in  falling  victims  to  a  dar- 
ing stratagem,  gave,  as  it  seemed  to  these  poetasters,  a 
signal  proof  of  the  immemorial  "  perfidy  "  of  Albion.* 
The  news  of  the  loss  of  Calais  reached  Valladolid 
at  the  end  of  January,  and  Yuste  on  the  2d  of  Feb- 
ruary. In  both  places  they  were  received  with  little 
less  sorrow  and  alarm  than  they  had  caused  in  Lon- 
don. In  the  exploit  of  Guise  the  emperor  lamented, 
not  only  a  loss  and  an  affront  suffered  by  the  nation 
of  which  his  son  was  king,  but  an  important  acces- 
sion to  the  strength  of  the  most  formidable  neighbor 
of  the  Spanish  Netherlands.  The  word  Calais,  which 
Mary  Tudor  dolefully  declared  to  be  written  on  her 
heart,  was  also  ever  on  the  tongue  of  her  kinsman 
Charles.      For   days   he  spoke  of  nothing   else,   re- 

•  HoUinshed :  Chronicles,  6  vols.,  4to,  London,  1808,  IV.  93. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  171 

curring  perpetually  to  the  sore  subject,  and  saying 
that  now  there  was  nothing  but  the  castle  of  Ghent 
between  the  French  and  Bruxelles.  To  his  secretary 
Gaztelu  he  confessed  that  he  had  never  in  his  life  re- 
ceived so  painful  a  blow;  and  he  wrote  in  the  most 
urgent  terms  to  the  princess-regent,  telling  her  that 
every  nerve  must  now  be  strained  to  raise  money  to 
repair  the  loss,  and  reinforce  the  king's  army.  The 
chamberlain  shared  his  master's  feelings;  and  in  his 
letter  on  the  occasion  to  Vazquez,  severely  criticized 
the  Castillian  leaders  for  their  remissness,  and  prophe- 
sied that  Gravelines,  Nieuport,  and  Dunkirk  would 
likewise  soon  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 

As  a  slight  consolation  for  the  loss  of  Calais,  came 
a  promise  of  a  new  heir  to  the  kingdom  in  the  shape 
of  a  report  of  the  pregnancy  of  the  queen,  —  a  preg- 
nancy in  which,  however,  few  people  believed  except 
poor  Mary  herself,  and  which  was  in  truth  nothing 
more  than  the  crisis  of  the  dropsy,  which  in  a  few 
months  gave  her  crown  to  Elizabeth,  released  her 
people  from  the  hateful  yoke  of  Philip,  and  enabled 
the  mind  of  England  once  more  to  march  on  the  no- 
ble path  of  civil  and  religious  freedom. 

In  this  gloomy  time  of  disaster,  the  emperor  con- 
tinued to  suffer  from  gout,  which  sometimes  so  com- 
pletely disabled  his  fingers,  that,  instead  of  signing  the 
necessary  despatches,  he  was  obliged  to  seal  them 
with  a  small  private  signet.  In  spite  of  his  eider- 
down robes  and  quilts,  he  lay  in  bed  shivering,  and 
complaining  of  cold  in  his  bones.  His  appetite  was 
beginning  to  fail  him,  but  his  repasts,  though  dimin- 
ished in  quantity,  were  still  of  a  quality  to  pWplcx  the 
doctor,  consisting  principally  of  the  rich  fish  which 


172  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

the  patient  could  neither  dispense  with  nor  digest. 
His  favorite  beverage  at  this  time  was  vino  hastardo, 
a  sweet  wine  made  from  raisins,  and  brought  from 
Seville.  When  he  got  a  little  better,  he  ate,  in  spite 
of  all  remonstrances,  some  raw  oysters,  a  rash  act, 
upon  which  Quixada  remarked  despairingly  to  the 
secretary  of  state,  "  Surely  kings  imagine  that  their 
stomachs  are  not  made  like  other  men's." 

Meanwhile  the  queens  of  France  and  Hungary  ef- 
fected their  meeting  with  their  daughter  and  niece, 
the  infanta  Mary  of  Portugal.  Early  in  January  that 
princess  arrived  at  Elvas  in  great  state,  attended  by  a 
gallant  following  of  the  Portuguese  nobility.  After 
some  points  of  etiquette  had  been  argued  and  ad- 
justed, she  crossed  the  plains  of  the  Guadiana,  and 
having  been  received  in  due  form  by  a  party  of  Span- 
ish nobles  at  the  border  rivulet  of  Caya,  she  finally 
reached  the  longing  arms  of  her  mother.  Don  Anto- 
nio Puertocarrero  was  sent  down  from  Valladolid  to 
offer  her  the  congratulations  of  the  princess-regent,  to 
which  were  added  those  of  the  emperor,  the  emperor 
having  likewise  received,  as  he  passed,  credentials  at 
Yuste.  At  Badajoz  the  infanta  remained  for  twenty 
days,  during  which  time  her  mother  and  aunt  ex- 
hausted all  their  arguments  and  caresses  in  the  at- 
tempt to  induce  her  to  settle  in  Spain.  Queen  El- 
eanor gave  her  jewels  to  the  value  of  fifty  thousand 
ducats,  and  queen  Mary  added  a  quantity  of  rich 
dresses  and  household  plenishing.  But  her  heart  was 
sealed  against  the  land  of  which  she  had  hoped  to  be 
queen,  and  against  the  nearest  and  tenderest  ties  of 
her  SpaiSh  blood.  She  therefore  remained  inflexible 
in  her  determination  to  return  to  Portugal,  and  bade 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH. 


173 


an  eternal  farewell  to  her  weeping  mother  with  no 
visible  marks  of  concern.  During  her  stay  at  Bada- 
joz,  however,  she  was  careful  to  fulfil  the  laws  of  eti- 
quette to  the  letter,  and  accordingly  despatched  Don 
Emanuel  de  Melo  to  present  her  compliments  to  the 
regent  and  the  emperor.  Her  ambassador  travelled 
with  unusual  magnificence,  and  with  his  cav^cade  of 
fifty  horsemen  excited  great  stir  in  Quacos  and  at 
Yuste. 

On  the  11th  of  February,  the  queens  set  out  from 
Badajoz,  and  the  emperor  sent  Gaztelu  down  to  Tru- 
xillo  to  meet  them  on  the  road.  But  they  had  ac- 
complished only  three  leagues  of  their  journey,  when 
Eleanor,  who  had  been  suffering  at  Badajoz  with  her 
usual  asthma,  and  a  slight  attack  of  fever,  was  taken 
seriously  ill  at  Talaverilla,  a  small  ague-stricken  town 
on  a  melancholy  plain.  Dr.  Cornel io,  who  was  in  at- 
tendance, had  the  worst  opinion  of  her  case.  Intelli- 
gence of  her  danger  was  immediately  sent  off  to  the 
infanta,  who  was  still  on  the  frontier  of  Portugal,  but 
who,  nevertheless,  refused  to  set  foot  again  in  Spain. 
A  courier  was  likewise  despatched  to  Yuste,  whence 
Quixada  was  ordered  instantly  to  ride  post  to  Tala- 
verilla. Gaztelu,  who  had  probably  met  the  courier 
on  the  road,  as  he  was  going  to  Truxillo,  arrived  first, 
on  the  morning  of  the  18th  of  February.  He  found 
the  queen  sitting  in  her  chair,  panting  for  breath,  and 
suffering  much  pain  ;  but  in  full  possession  of  her 
faculties,  and  listening  with  eager  interest  to  some 
business  of  her  daughter's.  At  six  in  the  evening, 
however,  he  was  hastily  sent  for  to  take  leave  of  her ; 
her  strength  was  then  utterly  exhausted,  and  she  was 
lying  in  a  state  of  stupor,  the  bishop  of    Palencia 

15* 


174  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

standing  at  her  side  in  his  robes,  ready  to  administer 
the  last  solemn  rite  of  the  church.  On  hearing  the 
secretary  announced,  she  roused  herself  for  a  moment, 
and  said,  "  Tell  my  brother,  the  emperor,  that  he  must 
take  care  of  my  daughter  the  infanta."  "With  her 
last  thoughts  thus  fixed  upon  the  thankless  child  who 
had  been  the  idol  of  her  life,  she  again  sank  into  un- 
consciousness ;  and  within  an  hour,  her  loving  heart 
had  ceased  to  beat ;  and  the  long  account  of  her  gen- 
tle deeds,  her  womanly  self-sacrifices,  and  her  meekly- 
borne  sorrows,  was  closed  for  ever.  Luis  de  Avila, 
who  stood  by  her  dying  bed,  truly  described  her  "  as 
the  gentlest  and  most  guileless  creature  he  had  ever 
known ;  and  as  one  who  left  no  better  being  in  the 
world."  Quixada  galloped  into  the  town  just  in  time 
to  see  her  before  she  expired,  and  immediately,  in  a 
few  simple  lines  of  honest  emotion,  communicated 
the  event  to  his  master  at  Yuste. 

The  remains  of  the  queen  were  deposited  at  Meri- 
da,  and  afterwards  gathered  to  those  of  her  kindred 
at  the  Escorial.  Her  desire  was,  that  the  interment 
should  be  simple  and  private,  and  the  money  which 
more  sumptuous  obsequies  would  have  cost  should 
be  given  to  the  poor.  Under  her  will,  her  undutiful 
daughter  became  her  universal  legatee,  and  inherited 
a  vast  quantity  of  plate,  jewels,  and  tapestry,  sundry 
large  sums  due  to  the  queen  by  the  crowns  of  France 
and  Spain,  and  various  lordships  in  Castille  and  Lan- 
guedoc ;  a  heritage  which,  with  her  patrimonial  por- 
tion and  her  towns  of  Viseu  and  Torres  Vedras,  made 
her  one  of  the  greatest  matches  in  Europe.*     On  the 

*  Dam.  de  Goes  :  Clironica  do  Rci  D.  Emanuel,  TV.  fol.  84. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  175 

death  of  his  English  queen,  Philip  the  prudent  once 
more  turned  his  thoughts  to  his  forsaken  love,  and  for 
a  brief  moment  the  Portuguese  infanta  was  again 
destined  for  the  Spanish  throne.  A  successful  rival, 
however,  again  intervened  in  the  shape  of  peace  with 
France,  and  a  young,  lovely,  and  well-dowered  daugh- 
ter of  Valois.  Fate  had  marked  Mary  of  Avis  for  sin- 
gle blessedness  ;  and  in  spite  of  all  the  attempts  made 
on  her  behalf,  she  died  unmarried,  a  fact  which  Por- 
tuguese historians  patriotically  ascribe  to  her  unwill- 
ingness to  deprive  Portugal  of  her  splendid  dowry. 
Her  grand  nephew,  Don  Sebastian,  became  heir  to 
the  residue  of  her  fortune  which  remained  after  the 
completion  of  her  splendid  mausoleum,  in  a  chapel  of 
Our  Lady  of  Light,  and  of  the  nunneries  and  other 
religious  edifices  which  she  had  founded  with  lavish 
piety  in  various  parts  of  the  kingdom.* 

On  the  death  of  queen  Eleanor,  Gazteluand  Quixa- 
da  set  out  for  Yuste.  Queen  Mary,  who  was  to  fol- 
low them  slowly,  in  giving  them  audience  on  their 
departure,  was  so  overcome  with  grief  for  her  loss, 
that  her  messages  to  her  brother  were  drowned  in  sobs 
and  tears.  The  emperor,  on  receiving  the  news,  like- 
wise wept  bitterly,  and  displayed  an  emotion  which 
he  rarely  felt  and  still  more  rarely  permitted  to  be 
seen.  For  Eleanor,  although  her  happiness  never 
stood  in  the  way  of  his  policy,  had  ever  been  his  fa- 
vorite sister.  "  There  were  but  fifteen  months,"  he 
said,  "  between  us  in  age,  and  in  less  than  that  time 
I  shall  be  with  her  once  more,"  —  a  prophecy  which 
was  exactly  fulfilled.     The  shock  increased  the  vio- 

*  Pedro  lie  Mariz  :  Diahvjos  de  varia  Historia,  sm   8vo.  Lisbon,   1594, 
fol.  205. 


l76  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

lence  of  his  disorders,  and  his  strength  was  so  much 
prostrated,  that  Gaztelu  did  not  venture  to  tell  him 
the  intelligence  which  had  just  come,  that  Oran  was 
again  menaced  by  a  Turkish  fleet.  Nevertheless  the 
invalid  gave  his  orders  about  mourning  for  the  house- 
hold, and  about  the  masses  to  be  said  for  the  deceased 
in  the  convent  church.  For  many  days  he  lay  in  bed, 
sometimes  tossing  restlessly,  sometimes  unable  to 
move  for  pain,  eating  very  little  and  sleeping  still  less. 
It  was  not  till  the  end  of  the  month  that  he  showed 
any  symptoms  of  amendment,  or  was  able  to  sit  up ; 
or  to  taste  a  dried  herring  from  Burgos  with  a  head 
of  garlic ;  or  to  receive  visitors.  Luis  de  Avila  was 
one  of  the  first  inquirers  who  presented  himself ;  and 
the  emperor  was  much  the  better  for  seeing  him. 
From  the  death-bed  scene  at  Talaverilla,  their  conver- 
sation passed  to  war  and  politics,  when  the  emperor, 
recurring  to  the  loss  of  Calais,  said  that  he  regretted 
it  like  death  itself. 

The  queen  of  Hungary  arrived  on  the  3d  of  March, 
and  on  this  occasion  was  lodged  for  some  nights  in 
the  convent.  Coming  next  morning  to  visit  her 
brother,  he  was  much  affected  on  seeing  Mary  enter 
his  room  alone  ;  and  he  afterwards  said  to  Quixada, 
that  until  then  he  had  not  felt  the  reality  of  queen 
Eleanor's  death.  Observing  the  effect  she  had  pro- 
duced, queen  Mary  avoided  it  in  future  by  going  at- 
tended either  by  the  chamberlain,  or  by  Avila,  or  by 
the  bishop  of  Palencia.  The  course  of  their  genuine 
natural  sorrow  was  interrupted  by  the  official  sem- 
blance of  woe  in  the  shape  of  Don  Hernando  de 
Roxas,  sent  to  Valladolid  to  condole  with  the  court  of 
Lisbon,  and  of  Dr.  Bernardino  de  Tavora,  on  a  simi- 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  177 

lar  mission  from  Lisbon  to  the  courts  of  Valladolid 
and  Yuste.  The  emperor  gave  audiences  to  both  of 
these  envoys,  and  found  that  the  Portuguese  brought, 
on  the  part  of  his  queen,  not  only  a  string  of  decent 
and  consolatory  truisms,  but  some  very  uncomfortable 
intelligence  of  a  Turkish  descent  on  the  African  pos- 
sessions of  the  house  of  Avis,  and  of  the  accession  to 
power  of  a  new  Sultan  of  Fez,  who  was  likely  to  be 
troublesome  both  to  Spain  and  Portugal.* 

Queen  Mary  moved  in  a  few  days  from  Yuste  to 
her  old  abode  at  Xarandilla.  On  the  15th  of  March 
she  came  to  take  leave  of, the  emperor,  and  found  him 
again  in  bed,  and  suffering  much  pain  from  an  ulcer- 
ated finger.  It  was  the  last  time  that  they  met  in 
this  world.  She  passed  the  night  at  Quacos,  and  set 
off  next  day  at  noon  for  Valladolid,  preceded  by  Luis 
Quixada.  who  had  started  at  dawn  to  provide  for  the 
evening's  repose.  Some  months  afterwards  she  sent 
some  illuminated  choir-books  to  the  monks  at  Yuste,  as 
an  oifering  to  their  church  and  a  memorial  of  her  visit 
to  the  convent.  For  Mary  shared  her  brother's  tastes, 
and  was  both  a  collector  and  a  lover  of  works  of  art. 
Evidence  of  her  feeling  on  these  matters  is  preserved 
in  the  letter  relating  to  a  portrait  of  her  nephew 
Philip,  painted  by  Titian,  and  lent  by  her  to  Philip's 
longing  bride,  Mary  of  England,  in  which  she  dis- 
plays the  greatest  solicitude,  not  only  that  the  picture 
should  be  safely  and  speedily  returned,  but  that  it 
should  also  be  seen  at  a  due  distance,  and  in  an  ad- 
vantageous light.f 

Quixada  attended  the  queen  not  solely  for  her  con- 
venience, but  partly  to  communicate  to  the  princess- 


*  Menczes  :  Chronica,  p.  75.        t  Papiers  cVEtat  de  Granvelle,  IV.  p.  150. 


178  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

regent  some  confidential  instructions  from  the  empe- 
ror, and  partly  that  he  might  now  superintend  the 
removal  of  his  own  household  from  Villagarcia  to 
Quacos.  He  arrived  at  court  at  noon  on  the  19th, 
and  immediately  saw  the  regent.  His  business  was 
to  explain  the  emperor's  views  as  to  the  best  means 
of  raising  money,  the  great  end  of  all  Spanish  gov- 
ernment, and  to  persuade  the  princess  to  consult 
queen  Mary  in  all  state  affairs  of  importance,  and 
especially  on  topics  connected  with  Flanders,  which 
she  had  ruled  so  long  and  so  wisely.  With  what- 
ever deference  Juana  may  have  received  her  fathei;^s 
financial  advice,  she  showed  no  deference  whatever 
to  his  second  proposal.  She  was  desirous  to  resign 
the  government  to  her  brother,  but  she  would  on  no 
account  share  it  with  her  aunt.  She  would  not  even 
permit  Quixada  to  mention  the  emperor's  wish  to 
the  council  of  state.  She  was  willing  that  Mary's 
treasurer  should  be  heard  occasionally  before  the 
council ;  but  as  he  was  a  Frenchman,  and  therefore 
not  entirely  to  be  trusted,  even  this  concession  must 
be  cautiously  used.  But  as  to  allowing  the  queen 
herself  a  voice  as  a  matter  of  right,  that,  she  said,  she 
could  never  agree  to;  for  Mary's  temper  was  well 
known  to  be  so  imperious,  that,  were  she  permitted  to 
meddle  at  all,  she  would  soon  make  herself  mistress 
of  the  whole  state.  Besides,  when  she  herself  was 
appointed  regent,  no  such  interference  with  her  power 
was  proposed  or  even  contemplated ;  and  in  short,  if 
the  point  were  insisted  on,  she  would  resign  the 
government.*      The   point  was  not  insisted  on,  and 

*  Quixada  to  emp.,  19th  of  March,  and  princess  to  emp.,  22d  of 
March,  1558.     Gonzalez  MS. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  179 

queen  Mary  fixed  her  residence  at  Cigales,  a  ham- 
let near  which  there  was  a  small  royal  seat,  about 
two  leagues  from  the  capital,  crowning  a  vine-clad 
height  on  the  western  side  of  the  vale  of  the  Pisu- 
erga. 

The  emperor's  scheme  of  finance  seems  to  have 
been  submitted' by  the  princess  to  the  council,  for  a 
memorial  was  immediately  prepared  by  that  body  on 
the  subject,  and  forwarded  for  approval  to  Yuste. 
This  document  suggested,  as  a  means  of  raising 
funds,  an  increase  in  the  price  of  salt,  the  sale  of  cer- 
tain lands  belonging  to  the  military  orders,  the  sale  of 
certain  honorary  offices  and  of  patents  of  nobifity 
(hidalg-uias) ,  and  the  sale  of  acts  or  patents  conferring 
legitimacy  on  the  children  of  the  clergy. 

The  inquiry  into  the  Seville  bullion  case  continued 
to  drag  its  slow  length  along,  with  results  which  were 
submitted  at  intervals  to  the  emperor.  Some  of  the 
merchants,  accused  of  being  averse  to  the  seizure  of 
their  property,  having  informed  on  each  other,  he  ad- 
vised that  free  pardon  should  be  offered  to  all  ship- 
masters and  sailors  who  should  give  evidence  leading 
to  further  discoveries.  Nothing  worthy  of  note  was 
elicited,  but  the  facts,  that  there  was  hardly  a  trader 
in  Seville  who  was  not  guilty  of  concealing  his  gold 
and  silver ;  and  that  so  great  was  the  distrust  of  the 
royal  mint,  that  some  of  the  importers  made  quoits 
(tejuelos)  of  those  precious  metals,  hoping  that,  in  that 
humble  disguise,  they  might  escape  the  vigilance  of 
the  royal  searchers. 

A  proof  of  the  straits  to  which  the  treasury  was 
reduced  is  found  in  a  fresh  skirmish  which  took  place 
between  the  self-willed  grand  inquisitor  Valdes,  and 


180  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

the  court.  Some  months  before,  the  emperor  had 
written  to  the  princess,  that,  so  soon  as  the  body  of  his 
mother,  the  late  queen  Juana,  should  be  considered 
sufficiently  dry,  it  was  to  be  transferred  with  proper 
state  from  Tordesillas  to  Granada,  and  there  laid  be- 
side her  husband,  Philip  the  handsome,  in  the  mag- 
nificent tomb  of  white  marble,  wrought  by  the  deli- 
cate chisel  of  Vigarny,  in  the  chapel-royal  of  the  ca- 
thedral. Towards  the  end  of  March,  the  weather 
being  favorable,  and  the  royal  corpse  being  pro- 
nounced ripe  for  removal,  the  marquis  of  Comares 
and  the  grand  inquisitor  were  ordered  to  hold  them- 
selves in  readiness  to  escort  it  on  the  journey.  But  the 
prelate  excused  himself,  on  the  plea  that  he  must  at- 
tend to  the  business  of  the  holy  office,  and  to  the  souls 
of  the  Moriscos  of  Valladolid.  The  princess,  on  the 
other  hand,  not  only  refused  to  admit  this  excuse,  but 
said  that  it  was  an  excellent  opportunity  for  him  to 
visit  his  diocese,  from  which  he  had  been  long  absent; 
and  she  therefore  ordered  him  to  proceed  on  the  jour- 
ney, and  return  by  way  of  Seville.  With  this  new  order 
the  archbishop  flatly  refused  to  comply,  alleging  that, 
since  a  certain  decree  of  the  council  of  Trent,  which 
had  greatly  extended  the  powers  of  chapters,  he  had 
been  waging  such  a  war  with  his  canons  that  it  was 
utterly  impossible  for  him  to  honor  them  with  his 
presence.  The  infanta,  finding  him  thus  stubborn, 
referred  the  matter  to  the  council,  which  at  once  de- 
cided against  the  recusant.  Still  the  archbishop  held 
out,  setting  forth  the  hardship  of  his  case  in  letters, 
each  of  which  was  more  cool,  plausible,  and  copious 
than  the  one  before  it;  and  at  last  hinting  that,  if  he 
were  left  to  choose  his  own  time,  he  would  go  down 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  181 

to  Granada,  and  find  means  of  levying  on  the  Moris- 
cos  there  a  fine  of  one  hundred  thousand  ducats  for 
the  royal  service.  The  bait  took;  and  the  insolent 
old  churchman  was  left  to  pursue,  undisturbed,  his 
present  course  of  cruelty  and  exaction  at  Valladolid  ; 
and  another  holy  man  was  appointed  to  pray  beside 
the  crazy  queen's  coffin  as  it  journeyed  to  the  tomb. 

Under  a  course  of  sarsaparilla  and  an  infusion  of 
liquorice  the  emperor's  health  improved  as  the  genial 
spring  weather  came  on.  But  his  attack  of  gout  had 
shaken  him  considerably,  and  for  many  w^eeks  painful 
twinges  were  apt  to  revisit  his  arms  and  knees.  Nor 
was  he  so  fit  for  exercise  as  he  had  been  during  the 
previous  year,  and  his  gun  ceased  to  persecute  the 
wood-pigeons  in  the  walnut-trees.  But  he  was  still 
able  to  sit  or  saunter  among  his  new  parterres,  bright 
and  fragrant  with  vernal  flowers,  and  to  superintend 
the  progress  of  his  fountain  and  summer-house,  which 
were  ready  in  summer  to  shed  their  coolness  and  offer 
their  shade.  To  this  family  of  pets,  the  queen  of  Por- 
tugal added  in  April  a  pair  of  very  small  Indian  cats, 
and  a  parrot,  gifted  with  wonderful  faculties  of  speech, 
which  soon  became  the  favorite  of  the  palace. 

The  emperor's  punctual  attendance,  whenever  his 
health  permitted,  on  religious  rites  in  church,  and  his 
fondness  for  finding  occasion  for  extraordinary  func- 
tions there,  won  him  golden  opinions  among  the 
friars.  On  each  1st  of  May,  during  his  stay  at  the 
convent,  he  caused  funeral  honors  to  be  celebrated  for 
his  empress  with  great  pomp,  and  a  liberal  allowance 
of  tapers.  When  he  himself  had  completed  a  year  of 
residence,  some  good-humored  bantering  passed  be- 
tween hira  and  the  master  of  the  novices,  about  its 

16 


182  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

being  now  time  for  him  to  make  profession :  and  he 
afterwards  declared,  as  the  friars  averred,  that  he  was 
prevented  from  taking  the  vows,  and  becoming  one  of 
themselves,  only  by  the  state  of  his  health. 

St.  Bias's  day,  1558,  the  anniversary  of  his  arrival, 
was  held  as  a  festival  and  celebrated  by  masses,  the 
Te  Deum,  a  procession,  and  a  sermon  by  Villalva. 
In  the  afternoon,  the  emperor  provided  a  sumptugus 
repast  for  the  whole  convent  out  of  doors,  it  being  the 
custom  of  the  fraternity  to  mark  any  accession  to 
their  numbers  by  a  picnic.  The  country  people  of 
the  Vera  sent  a  quantity  of  partridges  and  kids  to  aid 
the  feast,  which  was  also  enlivened  by  the  presence 
of  many  of  the  Flemish  retainers,  male  and  female, 
from  the  village  of  Quacos.  The  prior  provided  a 
more  permanent  memorial  of  the  day,  by  opening  a 
new  book  for  the  names  of  brethren  admitted  to  the 
convent,  on  the  first  leaf  of  which  the  emperor  in- 
scribed his  name,  an  autograph  which  was  the  pride 
of  the  archives  until  they  were  destroyed  by  the  dra- 
goons of  Bonaparte. 

On  the  first  Sunday  after  he  came  to  the  convent, 
as  he  went  to  mass,  he  observed  the  friar,  who  was 
sprinkling  the  holy  water,  hesitate  as  he  approached 
to  be  aspersed.  Taking  the  hyssop,  therefore,  from 
his  hand,  he  bestowed  a  plentiful  shower  upon  his 
own  face  and  clothes,  saying,  as  he  returned  the  in- 
strument, "  This,  father,  is  the  way  you  must  do  it 
next  time."  Another  friar  offering  the  pyx  containing 
the  holy  wafer  to  his  lips,  in  a  similar  diffident  man- 
ner, he  took  it  into  his  hands,  and  not  only  kissed  it 
fervently,  but  applied  it  to  his  forehead  and  eyes  with 
true  oriental  reverence. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  183 

Feasting  being  his  greatest  pleasure,  he  considered 
fasting  at  due  times  and  seasons  the  first  of  human 
duties;  and  during  his  last  Lent  in  Flanders,  he  had 
specially  charged  the  papal  nuncio  to  grant  licenses 
for  the  use  of  meat  to  no  member  of  his  household, 
except  the  sick  whose  lives  were  in  danger.*  Al- 
though provided  with  an  indulgence  for  eating  before 
communion,  he  never  availed  himself  of  it  but  when 
suffering  from  extreme  debility;  and  he  always  heard 
two  masses  on  the  days  when  he  partook  of  the  sol- 
emn rite.  On  Ash  Wednesday  he  required  his  entire 
household,  down  to  the  meanest  scullion,  to  commu- 
nicate ;  and  on  these  occasions  he  would  stand  on 
the  highest  step  of  the  altar  to  observe  if  the  muster 
was  complete.  He  was  likewise  particular  in  causing 
the  Flemings  to  be  assembled  for  confession  on  the 
stated  days  when  their  countryman,  the  Flemish 
chaplain,  came  over  from  Xarandilla.f 

The  emperor  himself  usually  heard  mass  from  the 
window  of  his  bedchamber,  which  looked  into  the 
church;  but  at  complines  he  went  up  into  the  choir 
with  the  fathers,  and  prayed  in  a  devout  and  audible 
voice  in  his  tribune.  During  the  season  of  Lent, 
which  came  round  twice  during  his  residence  at 
Yuste,  he  regularly  appeared  on  Fridays  in  his  place 
in  the  choir,  and  at  the  end  of  the  appointed  prayers, 
extinguishing  the  taper  which  he,  like  the  rest,  held  in 
his  hand,  he  flogged  himself  with  such  sincerity  of 
purpose,  that  the  scourge  was  stained  with  blood,  and 
the  pious  singularly  edified.  Some  of  these  scourges 
were  found,  after  his  death,  in  his  chamber,  stained 

*  Relatione  of  Badovaro.    See  Chap.  11.  p.  39,  note, 
t  Chap.  IV.  p.  97. 


184  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

with  blood,  and  became  precious  heirlooms  in  the 
house  of  Austria,  and  honored  relics  at  the  Escorial.* 
On  Good  Friday  he  went  forth  at  the  head  of  his 
household  to  adore  the  holy  cross ;  and,  although  he 
was^'so  infirm  that  he  was  almost  carried  by  the  men 
on  whom  he  leaned,  he  insisted  upon  prostrating  him- 
self three  times  upon  the  ground,  in  the  manner  of 
the  friars,  before  he  approached  the  blessed  symbol 
with  his  lips.  The  feast  of  St.  Matthias  he  always 
celebrated  with  peculiar  devotion,  as  a  day  of  great 
things  in  his  life,  being  the  day  of  his  birth,  his  coro- 
nation, the  victories  of  Bicocca  and  Pavia,  and  the 
birth  of  his  son  Don  John  of  Austria.  On  this  festival, 
therefore,  he  appeared  at  mass  in  a  dress  of  ceremony, 
and  wearing  the  collar  of  the  golden  fleece,  and  at  the 
offertory  expressed  his  gratitude  by  a  large  oblation. 
The  church  was  thronged  with  strangers,  and  the 
crowd  who  could  not  gain  admittance  was  so  great, 
that,  while  one  sermon  proceeded  within,  another  was 
pronounced  outside,  beneath  the  shadow  of  the  great 
walnut-tree  of  Yuste. 

The  emperor  lived  with  the  friars  on  terms  of  friend- 
ly familiarity,  of  which  they  were  very  proud,  and  his 
household  somewhat  ashamed.  He  always  insisted  on 
his  confessor  being  seated  in  his  presence,  and  would 
never  listen  to  the  entreaties  of  the  modest  divine, 
that  he  should  at  least  be  allowed  to  stand  when  the 
chamberlain  or  any  one  else  came  into  the  room. 
"  Have  no  care  of  this  matter.  Fray  Juan,"  he  would 

*  They  were  seen  and  handled  there  in  the  next  centnry  by  Graspar 
Scioppius,  as  he  relates  in  his  caustic  book  against  Strada:  Infamia 
Famiani,  12nio,  Amsterd  ,  1663,  p.  18.  He  adds,  that,  being  still  stained 
■with  the  blood  of  Charles,  they  could  have  "  given  little  pain  to  the 
backs  "  of  the  Philips,  his  descendants,  p.  1 9. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  185 

say,  "  since  you  are  my  father  in  confession,  and  I  am 
equally  pleased  by  your  sitting  in  my  presence,  and 
by  your  blushing  when  caught  in  the  act."  He  knew 
all  the  friars  by  sight  and  by  name,  and  frequently 
conversed  with  them,  as  well  as  with  the  prior ;  and 
he  sometimes  honored  them  with  his  company  at 
dinner  in  the  refectory.*  When  the  visitors  of  the 
order  paid  their  triennial  visit  of  inspection  to  Yuste, 
they  represented  to  him  with  all  respect,  that  his  maj- 
esty himself  was  the  only  inmate  of  the  convent  with 
whom  they  had  any  fault  to  find  ;  and  they  entreated 
him  to  discontinue  the  benefactions  which  he  was  in 
the  habit  of  bestowing  on  the  fraternity,  and  which  it 
was  against  their  rule  for  Jeromites  to  receive.  One 
of  his  favorites  was  the  lay  brother,  Alonso  Mudarra, 
who,  after  having  filled  offices  of  trust  in  the  state, 
was  now  working  out  his  own  salvation  as  cook  to 
the  convent.  This  worthy  had  an  only  daughter, 
who  did  not  share  her  father's  contempt  for  mundane*" 
things.  When  she  came  with  her  husband  to  visit 
him  at  Yuste,  emerging  from  among  the  pots  in  his 
dirtiest  apron,  he  thus  addressed  her:  "Daughter,  be- 
hold ray  gala  apparel ;  obedience  is  now  my  pleasure 
and  my  pride  ;  for  you,  with  your  silks  and  vanities, 
I  entertain  a  profound  pity  I "  So  saying,  he  returned 
to  his  cooking,  and  would  never  see  her  again,  an 
effort  of  holiness  to  which  he  appears  to  owe  his  place 
in  the  chronicles  of  the  order.  • 

While  the  emperor's  servants  were  surprised  by  his 
familiarity  with  the  stupid  friars,  the  friars  marvelled 
at  his  forbearance  with  his  careless  servants.     They 

•  He  dined  with  them  on  the  6th  of  June,  St.  Vincent's  day,  1557, 
and  was  observed  to  be  in  pecnliarly  good  spirits. 
16* 


186  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

noted  his  patience  with  Adrian  the  cook,  although  it 
was  notorious  that  he  left  the  cinnamon,  which  his 
master  loved,  out  of  the  dishes  whereof  it  was  the 
proper  seasoning  ;  and  how  mildly  he  admonished 
Pelayo  the  baker,  who,  getting  drunk  and  neglecting 
his  oven,  sent  up  burnt  bread,  which  must  have  sorely 
tried  the  toothless  gums  of  the  emperor.  Neverthe- 
less, the  old  military  habits  of  the  recluse  had  not  al- 
together forsaken  him ;  and  there  were  occasions  in 
which  he  showed  himself  something  of  a  martinet  in 
enforcing  the  discipline  of  his  household  and  the  con- 
vent. Observing  in  his  walks,  or  from  his  window, 
that  a  certain  basket  daily  went  and  came  between 
his  garden  and  the  garden  of  the  friars,  he  sent  for 
Moron,  minister  of  the  horticultural  department,  and 
caused  him  to  institute  a  search,  of  which  the  result 
was  the  harmless  discovery  that  the  cepevorous  Flem- 
ings were  in  the  habit  of  bartering  egg-plants  with 
the  friars  for  double  rations  of  onions.  He  had  also 
been  disturbed  by  suspicious  gatherings  of  young 
women,  who  stood  gossiping  at  the  convent  gate, 
under  pretence  of  receiving  alms.  At  Yuste,  the 
spirit  of  misogyny  was  less  stern  than  it  had  formerly 
been  at  Mejorada,  where  the  prior  once  assured  queen 
Mary  of  Castille,  that  if  she  opened,  as  she  proposed, 
a  door  from  her  palace  into  the  conventual  choir,  he 
and  his  monks  would  fly  from  their  polluted  abode.* 
In  his  secular  life,  Charles  was  accused  by  one  con- 
temporary! of  following  the  ways  of  pious  times  "  be- 
fore polygamy  was  made  a  sin,"  and  praised  by  an- 

*  Fr.  Pedro  de  la  Vega :  Cronica  de  los  Frayles  de  Sunt  Hieronymo,  fol., 
Alcala,  1539,  black  letter,  fol.  xli. 

t  Badovaro.     See  Chap.  II.  p.  39,  note. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  187 

other  for  being  so  severely  virtuous  as  to  shut  his 
window  when  he  saw  a  pretty  woman  pass  along  the 
street.*  Here,  however,  he  was  determined  that 
neither  he  himself  nor  his  Jeromite  hosts  should  be 
led  into  temptation.  His  complaint  to  the  superior 
not  sufficiently  suppressing  the  evil,  it  was  repeated 
to  the  visitors  when  they  came  their  rounds.  An  or- 
der was  then  issued  that  the  conventual  dole,  instead 
of  being  divided  at  the  door,  should  be  sent  round  in 
certain  portions  to  the  villages  of  the  Vera,  for  distri- 
bution on  the  spot.  And  although  it  was  well  known 
that  St.  Jerome  had  sometimes  miraculously  let  loose 
the  lion,  which  always  lies  at  his  feet  in  his  pictures, 
against  the  women  who  ventured  themselves  within 
his  cloisters,!  it  was  thought  prudent  to  adopt  more 
sure  and  secular  means  for  their  exclusion.  The  crier 
therefore  went  down  the  straggling  street  of  Quacos, 
making  the  ungallant  proclamation,  that  any  woman 
who  should  be  found  nearer  to  the  convent  of  Yuste 
than  a  certain  oratory,  about  two  gunshots  from  the 
gate,  was  to  be  punished  with  a  hundred  lashes. 

On  the  3d  of  May,  1558,  the  emperor  received  an 
intimation  from  the  secretary  of  state,  that  all  the 
forms  of  his  renunciation  of  the  imperial  crown  had 
been  gone  through,  and  that  the  act  against  which 
Philip  and  the  court  had  so  frequently  remonstrated 
was  now  complete.  He  expressed  the  greatest  de- 
light at  this  intelligence,  and  caused  Gaztelu  to  reply 
that  in  future  he  was  to  be  addressed,  not  as  emperor, 
but  as  a  private  person,  and  that  a  couple  of  seals, 
"  without  crown,  eagle,  fleece,  or  other  device,"  were 

*  Zenocarns  :  Vita  CaroU  V.,  p.  268. 
t  p.  de  la  Vega :  Cronica,  fol.  xli. 


188  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

to  be  made  and  forthwith  sent  for  his  use.  In  this 
letter  the  usual  heading,  "  the  emperor,"  was  left  out, 
and  it  was  addressed  to  Juan  Vazquez  de  Molina,  not, 
as  before,  "  my  secretary,"  but  "  secretary  of  the  coun- 
cil of  the  king,  ray  son."  The  blank  seals  were  made 
and  sent;  but,  in  spite  of  Charles's  injunctions,  the 
princess-regent  and  all  his  other  correspondents  con- 
tinued to  address  him  by  his  ancient  style  and  title  of 
"  sacred  Caesarean  Catholic  majesty,"  which  indeed 
it  would  have  been  no  less  difficult  than  absurd  to 
change. 


THE   EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  189 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE  INQUISITION,  ITS  ALLIES  AND  ITS  VICTIMS. 

The  year  1558  is  memorable  in  the  history  of  Spain. 
In  that  year  was  decided  the  question  whether  she 
was  to  join  the  intellectual  movement  of  the  North, 
or  lag  behind  in  the  old  paths  of  mediaeval  faith ; 
whether  she  was  to  be  guided  by  the  printing-press, 
or  to  hold  fast  by  her  manuscript  missals.  It  was  in 
that  year  that  she  felt  the  first  distinct  shock  of  the 
great  moral  earthquake,  out  of  which  had  already 
come  Luther  and  Protestantism,  out  of  which  was  to 
come  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  the  English  common- 
wealth, French  revolutions,  and  modern  republics. 
The  effect  was  visible  and  palpable,  yet  transient  as 
the  effect  produced  by  the  great  Lisbon  earthquake 
on  the  distant  waters  of  Lochlomond.  But  to  the 
powers  that  were,  it  was  sufficiently  alarming.  For 
some  weeks  a  church-in-danger  panic  pervaded  the 
court  at  Valladolid  and  the  cloister  of  Yuste  ;  and  it 
was  feared  that,  while  the  Most  Catholic  King  was 
bringing  back  his  realm  of  England  to  the  true  fold, 
Castille  herself  might  go  astray  into  the  howling  wil- 
derness of  heresy  and  schism. 

The  harvest  of  church  abuses  into  which  Luther 
and  his  band  thrust  their  sharp  sickles  in  Germany, 
had  long  been  rank  and  rife  to  the  south  of  t|ie  Pyre- 


190 


THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


nees.  Nor  were  reapers,  strong,  active,  and  earnest, 
wanting  to  the  field.  From  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  not  only  laymen,  but  even  friars,  priests, 
and  dignitaries  of  the  church,  had  stood  forth  with 
voice  and  pen  to  make  solemn  protest  against  the 
vices  of  the  various  orders  of  the  priesthood ;  against 
the  greedy  avarice  and  dissolute  lives  of  monks ; 
against  the  regular  clergy,  who  preferred  their  hawks 
and  hounds' to  their  cures  of  souls  ;  against  oppressive 
prelates  and  chapters,  who  lived  in  open  concubinage, 
and  heaped  preferment  upon  their  bastards  ;  and 
even  against  Rome  itself,  where  all  these  iniquities 
were  practised  on  an  imperial  scale,  and  whence  Eu- 
rope was  irrigated  with  ecclesiastical  pollution.  In 
the  reign  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  and  during  the 
infamous  papacy  of  Alexander  the  Sixth,  the  disor- 
ders of  the  Franciscan  mendicants  had  reached  such 
a  pitch  of  public  scandal  in  Spain,  that  those  of  them 
who  adhered  to  the  party  which  was  called  cloisteral, 
in  opposition  to  the  reformed  party  of  the  observants, 
were  suppressed  by  law  and  actually  expelled  from 
their  monasteries.  But  although  this  just  and  neces- 
sary measure  was  enforced  by  the  strong  hand  of 
Ximenes,  then  provincial  of  the  order,  and  afterwards 
cardinal-primate,  the  cowled  vagabonds  who,  refusing 
to  purge  and  live  cleanly,  were  driven  from  Toledo, 
had  the  audacity  to  file  out  of  the  Visagra  gate  in 
long  procession,  headed  by  a  crucifix,  and  chanting 
the  psalm  which  celebrates  the  exodus  of  the  people 
of  God  from  the  bondage  of  Egypt.*    Abundant  proof 

*  Psalm  cxiii.  (in  our  version  cxir.) :  "  In  exUu  Israel  de  Egypto,^^  &c. 
See  Eugenio  de  Robles  :  Vida  del  Cardenal  D.  Fran.  Ximenes  de  Cisneros, 
4to,  Toleda^l604,  p.  68,  and  Alvar.  Gomez  :  De  Rebus  Gestis  a  F.  Xi- 
memo  Cisnerio,  4to,  Complati,  1569,  fol.  7. 


THE   EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  191 

of  the  demoralized  state  of  the  Spanish  clergy,  regu- 
lar and  secular,  may  be  found  in  those  collections  of 
obscene  songs  and  poems,  still  preserved  as  curiosities 
in  libraries,  and  composed,  chiefly  in  the  cloister,  in 
an  age  when  none  but  churchmen  were  writers,  and 
few  but  churchmen  were  readers.*  Similar  evidence, 
perhaps  still  more  convincing,  exists  in  the  proverbial 
philosophy  of  Spain,  that  old  and  popular  record  in 
which  each  generation  noted  its  experience,  where 
clerical  cant,  greed,  falsehood,  gluttony,  and  unclean- 
ness  are  so  frequently  lashed,  as  to  leave  no  doubt  of 
the  wisdom  of  the  precept  which  said,  "  Parson,  friar, 
and  Jew,  friends  like  these  eschew."  f 

These  evils  were  so  monstrous  and  so  crying,  that 
those  who  denounced  them  enjoyed  for  a  while  the 
support  of  popular  feeling,  and  even  the  good-will  of 
the  secular  power.  But  while  all  good  men,  both  lay 
and  ecclesiastic,  deplored  and  even  denounced  the 
wickedness  of  churchmen,  there  is  no  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  they  were  shaken  in  their  faith  in  the  infal- 
lible church.  They  abhorred  the  hireling  shepherd, 
not  only  because  he  was  hateful  in  himself,  but  be- 
cause they  loved  the  true  fold,  of  which  he  was  the 
danger  and  the  disgrace.  Even  the  Inquisition  itself 
was  no  enemy  to  reform,  and  although  its  chief 
business  was  to  keep  the  Jew  and  the  Moor  under 
the  yoke  of  enforced  Christianity,  it  occasionally  took 
cognizance  of  the  grosser  cases  of  clerical  profligacy. 

*  See  the  curious  essay  on  this  subject,  by  Don  Luis  de  TJsoz  y  Rio, 
prefixed  to  the  Cancionero  de  Obras  de  Builas,  4to,  Valencia,  1519 ;  re- 
printed, sra.  8vo,  London,  1841. 

t  "  Clerigo  frayle,  o  Judio,  no  le  tengas  por  aniigo."  See  Essay  by 
Usoz,  p.  27,  cited  in  preceding  note. 


192  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

Under  the  rule  of  Adrian  of  Utrecht,  afterwards  pope, 
and  of  cardinal  Manrique,  the  holy  office  issued  a  few 
decrees  against  the  heresy  of  Luther  and  against  the 
importation  of  heretical  books  into  Spain.  But  the 
offenders  condemned  under  these  laws  were  few,  and 
principally  foreigners  ;  and  the  fires  were  usually  kin- 
dled for  victims  who  were  supposed  to  pray  w^ith 
their  faces  turned  to  the  east,  to  deal  in  astrology  and 
witchcraft,  to  keep  the  Sabbath,  to  circumcise  their 
children,  or  to  use  the  unchristian  luxury  of  the  bath. 
It  was  not  until  near  the  middle  of  the  century  that 
the  seed  cast  by  the  way-side  took  root  in  the  stony 
ground  of  CastiUe.  Then  it  was  that  Spanish  pens 
began  to  be  busy  with  translations  of  the  Scriptures. 
That  such  translations  were  as  yet  not  forbidden  may 
be  inferred  from  the  fact,  that  the  first  work  of  the 
kind,  the  Castillian  New  Testament  of  Enzinas,  print- 
ed at  Antwerp  in  1543,  was  dedicated  to  the  emperor 
Charles  the  Fifth.  In  spite,  however,  of  this  judicious 
choice  of  a  patron,  the  poor  author  very  shortly  found 
himself  in  prison  at  Bruxelles  as  an  heretical  perverter 
of  the  text.  Notwithstanding  his  ill  fortune,  several 
versions  of  the  Psalms  and  other  sacred  books,  and 
a  New  Testament  in  verse,  were  put  forth  from  the 
presses  of  Antwerp  and  Venice.  Commentaries, 
glosses,  dialogues,  and  other  treatises  of  questionable 
orthodoxy,  followed  in  rapid  succession.  Their  circu- 
lation in  Spain  became  so  extensive,  that  the  Inqui- 
sition interfered  with  fresh  laws  and  increased  sever- 
ities. The  stoppage  of  the  regular  traffic  only  piqued 
public  curiosity,  and  the  forbidden  tracts  were  soon 
smuggled  in  bales  by  the  muleteers  over  the  moun- 
tains from  Huguenot  Beam,  or  run  in  casks,  by  Eng- 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  193 

lish  or  Dutch  traders,  on  the  shores  of  Andalusia. 
Something  like  public  opinion  began  to  gather  and 
stir ;  strange  questions  were  raised  in  the  schools  of 
Alcala  and  Salamanca  ;  strange  doctrines  were  spoken 
from  cathedral  pulpits,  and  whispered  in  monastic 
cloisters ;  and  high  matters  of  faith,  which  had  been 
formerly  left  to  the  entire  control  of  the  clergy, 
were  handled  by  laymen,  and  even  by  ladies,  at  Se- 
ville and  Valladolid.  No  longer  contented  with 
pointing  out  the  weather-stains  and  rents  in  the  huge 
ecclesiastical  fabric,  reformers  began  to  pry  with  in- 
convenient curiosity  into  the  nature  of  its  foundations. 
But  no  sooner  had  the  first  stroke  fallen  upon  that 
venerable  accumulation  of  ages,  than  the  chiefs  of  the 
black  garrison  at  once  saw  the  full  extent  of  their  dan- 
ger. To  them  the  rubbish  on  the  surface,  being  far 
more  productive,  was  at  least  as  sacred  as  the  eternal 
rock  beneath.  Wisely,  therefore,  postponing  their  pri- 
vate differences  to  a  fitter  season  of  adjustment,  they 
sallied  forth  upon  the  foe,  armed  with  all  the  power  of 
the  state  as  well  as  with  all  the  terror  of  the  keys. 
The  unhappy  inquirers,  uncertain  of  their  own  aims 
and  plans,  were  not  supported  by  any  of  those  polit- 
ical chances  and  necessities  which  aided  the  triumph 
of  religious  reform  in  other  lands.  The  battle  was 
therefore  short,  the  carnage  terrible,  and  the  victory 
so  signal  and  decisive,  that  it  remains  to  this  day  a 
source  of  shame  or  of  pride  to  the  zealots  of  either 
party,  who  still  love  the  sound  of  the  polemic  trum- 
pet. The  Protestant  must  confess  that  the  new  re- 
ligion has  never  succeeded  in  eradicating  the  old,  even 
amongst  the  freest  and  boldest  of  the  Teutonic  peo- 
ple.     The   Catholic,   on  the  other  hand,  may  fairly 

17 


194  THE    CLOISTER   LIFE    OF 

boast,  that  in  the  Iberian  peninsula  the  seeds  of  re- 
form were  crushed  by  Rome  at  once  and  for  ever. 

What  the  new  tenets  were  can  hardly  be  made 
clear  to  us,  since  they  were  not  clear  to  the  unhappy 
persons  who  were  burned  for  holding  them.  Protes- 
tant divines  have  assumed  that  these  tenets  were 
Protestant,  on  account  of  the  savage  vengeance  with 
which  they  were  pursued  by  the  church.  In  one  fea- 
ture these  dead  and  forgotten  dogmas  have  some  in- 
terest for  the  philosopher,  in  the  glimmering  perception 
which  appears  in  them,  that  tolerance  is  a  Christian 
duty  ;  that  honesty  in  matters  of  belief  is  of  far  greater 
moment  than  the  actual  quality  of  the  beUef;  and 
that  speculative  error  can  never  be  corrected,  or  kept 
at  bay,  by  civil  punishment.  Yet  none  of  the  so- 
called  Spanish  Protestants  have  enunciated  these  sen- 
timents so  clearly  as  the  Benedictine  Virues  in  his 
treatise  against  the  opinions  of  Luther  and  Melanc- 
thon.*  Had  time  been  given  for  the  new  spirit  of  in- 
quiry to  shape  itself  into  some  definite  form,  it  would 
doubtless  have  greatly  modified  the  character  of  Span- 
ish religion ;  although  it  is  scarcely  probable  that  it 
would  have  led  the  children  of  the  South,  with  their 
warm  blood  and  tendency  to  sensuous  symbolism, 
into  that  track  of  severe  and  progressive  specula- 
tion, into  which  reform  conducted  the  people  of 
the  North.  But  inquiry  demands  time ;  and  the 
church  being  too  wise  to  trifle  with  so  deadly  a  foe, 
it  was  strangled  in  the  cradle  by  the  iron  gripe  of  the 
inquisitor. 

*  A.  de  Castro :  Spanish  Protestants,  translated  by  T.  Parker ;  sm. 
8vo,  London,  1851,  p.  \iv.,  where  a  passage  is  quoted  from  the  Dis- 
putationes   of  Virues. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  195 

It  would  be  curious  to  investigate  the  causes  to 
which  this  repressive  policy  owed  its  success  ;  and  to 
discover  the  reasons  why  tiie  Spaniard  tiius  clung  to 
a  superstition  which  the  Hollander  cast  away ;  why 
the  strong  giant,  whose  flag  was  on  every  sea,  and 
whose  foot  was  on  every  shore,  shrank  to  a  pigmy  in 
the  field  of  theological  speculation.  But  the  germs 
of  a  popular  faith  must  be  sought  for  far  and  wide  in 
the  moral  and  physical  circumstances  of  a  people ; 
and  it  would  be  far  beyond  the  scope  of  a  biographi- 
cal fragment,  to  analyze  the  mixed  blood  of  the 
Spaniard,  the  air  he  breathes,  the  shape  and  soil  of 
his  beautiful  land,  and  the  texture  of  his  national  his- 
tory. Suffice  it,  therefore,  to  notice  two  points  where- 
in the  victorious  church  possessed  advantages  in 
Spain,  which  were  wanting  to  her  in  the  countries 
where  she  was  vanquished.  The  first  of  these  was 
the  Inquisition,  a  police  claiming  unlimited  jurisdic- 
tion over  thought,  long  established,  well  organized, 
well  trained,  untrammelled  by  theuforms  of  ordinary 
justice,  and  so  habitually  merciless,  as  to  have  accus- 
tomed the  nation  to  see  blood  shed  liive  water  on  ac- 
count of  religious  error.  Before  this  terrible  machin- 
ery the  recruits  of  reform,  raw,  wavering,  doubting, 
without  any  clear  common  principle  or  habits  of  com- 
bination, were  swept  away  like  the  Indians  of  Mexico 
before  the  cavalry  and  culverins  of  Cortes.  The 
second  advantage  of  the  Spanish  church  was  her  inti- 
mate connection  with  the  national  glory,  and  her 
strong  hold,  if  not  on  the  affections,  at  least  on  the 
antipathies  of  the  people.  The  Moorish  wars,  which 
had  been  brought  to  a  close  within  the  memory  of 
men  still  alive,  had  been  eminently  wars  of  religion 


196  THE    CLOISTER   LIFE    OF 

and  of  race  ;  they  were  domestic  crusades,  which  had 
endured  for  eight  centuries,  and  in  which  the  church 
had  led  the  van  ;  and  in  which  the  knights  of  Castille 
deemed  it  no  disloyalty  to  avow  that  they  had  been 
guided  to  victory  rather  by  the  cross  of  Christ  than 
by  the  castles  and  lions  of  their  beloved  Isabella. 
Deeply  significant  of  the  spirit  of  the  enterprise  and 
the  age  was  the  fact,  that  it  was  the  sacred  cross  of 
Toledo,  the  symbol  of  primacy  borne  before  the  grand- 
cardinal  Mendoza,  which  was  solemnly  raised,  in  the 
sight  of  the  Christian  host,  in  the  place  of  the  cres- 
cent, on  the  red  towers  of  the  Alhambra.*  Since  that 
proud  day,  the  church,  once  more  militant  under  car- 
dinal Ximenes,  had  carried  the  holy  war  into  Africa, 
and  gained  a  footing  in  the  land  of  Tarik  and  the 
Saracen.  All  good  Christians  devoutly  believed,  with 
the  chronicler,!  that  "  powder  burned  against  the  infi- 
del was  sweet  incense  to  the  Lord."  In  Spain  itself 
there  was  still  a  large  population  of  Moorish  blood, 
which  made  a  garden  of  many  a  pleasant  valley,  and 
a  fortress  of  many  a  mountain  range,  and  which,  al- 
though Christian  in  name,  was  well  known  to  be 
Moslem  in  heart  and  secret  practice,  and  to  be  anx- 
iously looking  to  the  great  Turk  for  deliverance  from 
thraldom.  Every  city,  too,  had  its  colony  of  Hebrews, 
wretches  who  accumulated  untold  wealth,  eschewed 
pork,  and  continued  to  eat  the  paschal  lamb.  Against 
these  domestic  dangers  the  church  kept  watch  and 
ward,  doing,  with  the  full  approval  of  the  Christian 

*  Pedro  de  Salazar :  Cronica  de  el  gran  Cardenal  D.  Pedro  Gonzalez  de 
MendoQo,  fo\.,     Toledo,   1625,  p.  256. 

t  Gonz.  Fernandez  de  Oviedo :  Quincuagenas  ;  qaoted  by  Prescott, 
Hist,  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  197 

people,  all  that  cruelty  and  bad  faith  could  do  to  make 
Judaism  and  Islamism  eternal  and  implacable.  When 
the  Barbary  pirates  sacked  'a  village  on  the  shores  of 
Spain,  or  made  a  prize  of  a  Spanish  galley  at  sea,  it 
was  the  church  that  sent  forth  those  peaceful  crusad- 
ers, the  white-robed  friars  of  the  order  of  Mercy,  to 
redeem  the  captives  from  African  bondage.  In  Spain, 
therefore,  heresy,  or  opposition  to  the  authority  of  the 
church,  was  connected  in  the  popular  mind  with  all 
that  was  most  shameful  in  their  annals  of  the  past, 
and  all  that  was  most  hated  and  feared  in  the  circum- 
stances of  the  present,  and  in  the  prospects  of  the 
future.  In  Northern  Europe,  the  church  had  no  mar- 
tial achievements  to  boast  of,  and  few  opportunities  of 
appearing  in  the  beneficent  character  of  a  protector 
or  redeemer.  She  was  known  merely  in  her  spir- 
itual capacity ;  or  as  a  power  in  the  state  no  less 
proud  and  oppressive  than  king  or  count ;  or  as  the 
channel  through  which  the  national  riches  were 
drained  off  into  the  papal  treasury  at  Rome.  In  the 
North,  the  reformer  was  not  merely  the  denouncer  of 
ecclesiastical  abuses,  but  the  champion  of  the  people's 
rights,  and  the  redresser  of  their  wrongs.  But  in 
Spain,  the  poor  enthusiast,  to  his  horror,  found  him- 
self associated  in  popular  esteem,  as  well  as  in  the 
Inquisition  dungeons,  with  the  Jew,  the  crucifier  of 
babies,  and  the  Morisco,  who  plotted  to  restore  the 
Caliphate  of  the  West.  Men's  passions  became  so 
inflamed  against  the  new  doctrines,  that  an  instance 
is  recorded  of  a  wretched  fanatic,  who  asked  leave, 
which  was  joyfully  granted,  to  light  the  pile  whereon 
his  young  daughters  were  to  die.  Long  after  the  ex- 
citement had  passed  away,  a  mark  of  the  torrent  re- 

17* 


198  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

mained  in  the  proverbial  phrase,  in  which  the  aspect 
of  poverty  was  described  as  being  "  ugly  as  the  lace 
of  a  heretic."  * 

The  inquisitor-general,  archbishop  Valdes,  had  for 
some  months  past  been  watching  the  movement  party 
in  the  church  with  anxiety,  not  unmingled  with  alarm. 
He  had  even  applied  to  the  pope  for  extended  pow- 
ers. In  February  he  received  a  brief,  in  which  were 
renewed  and  consolidated  all  the  decrees  ever  issued 
by  popes  or  councils  against  heresy,  —  a  document  in 
which  Paul,  unable  to  resist  the  temptation  of  insult- 
ing Philip  the  Second,  even  while  he  was  treating 
with  him,  conferred  upon  the  Inquisition  the  power  of 
deposing  from  their  dignifies  heretics  of  whatever 
degree,  were  they  bishops,  archbishops,  or  cardinals, 
dukes,  kings,  or  emperors,  f 

The  first  heretic  of  note  who  was  arrested  at  Valla- 
dolid  was  Dr.  Augustin  Cazalla,  an  eminent  divine 
who  had  for  ten  years  attended  Charles  the  Fifth  in 
Germany  and  the  Netherlands  as  his  preacher,  and  in 
that  capacity  had  distinguished  himself  by  the  force 
and  eloquence  with  which  he  had  denounced  Luther 
and  his  errors.  But  while  he  saved  others,  the  doctor 
himself  became  a  castaway.  Having  been  for  some 
time  suspected  of  holding  new  opinions,  he  was  ar- 
rested on  the  23d  of  April,  as  he  was  going  to 
preach  beyond  the  walls  of  the  city,  and  was  lodged 
in  the  prison  of  the  Inquisition.  His  sister,  and  sev- 
eral other  noble  ladies,  were  likewise  taken  at  the 
same  time ;  and  orders  were  given  to  search  for  an 

*  A.  de  Castro:  Hist,  de  los  Protestantes  Espanoles,  pp.  218,  311. 
t  Llorente  :    Hist,  de  la    Inquisicion,    8  vols  ,  sm.  8vo,    Barcelona, 
1835.  III.  264. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  199 

important  rnember  of  the  party,  Fray  Domingo  de 
Roxas,  son  of  the  marquis  of  Poza,  a  Dominican  of 
high  reputation  for  sanctity. 

Notice  of  these  events  was  immediately  sent  to 
Yuste.  The  emperor  heard  of  them  with  much  emo- 
tion, —  emotion  not  of  pity  for  the  probable  fate  of 
his  chaplain,  but  of  horror  of  the  crime  laid  to  his 
charge.  He  soon  afterwards  addressed  two  letters  to 
the  princess-regent ;  one  a  private  and  tender  epistle, 
the  other  a  public  despatch  to  be  laid  before  the  coun- 
cil. In  both  of  them  he  entreated  her  to  lose  no  time 
and  spare  no  pains  to  uproot  the  dangerous  doctrine ; 
and  in  the  second,  he  advised  that  all  who  were  found 
guilty  should  be  punished,  without  any  exception  • 
and  said  that,  if  the  state  of  his  health  permitted,  he 
would  himself  undertake  any  toil  for  the  chastisement 
of  so  great  a  crime,  and  the  remedy  of  so  great  an 
evil.  Talking  of  the  same  matter  with  the  prior  of 
Yuste,  he  again  expressed  the  same  opinion  and  the 
same  wish.  "  Father,"  said  he,  "  if  any  thing  could 
drag  me  from  this  retreat,  it  would  be  to  aid  in  chas- 
tising these  heretics.  For  such  creatures  as  those  now 
in  prison,  however,  this  is  not  necessary,  but  I  have 
written  to  the  Inquisition  to  burn  them  all,  for  none  of 
them  will  ever  become  true  Catholics,  or  are  worthy  to 
live."  * 

His  advice  was  taken,  though  not  with  the  promp- 
titude he  desired.  But  the  alguazils  of  holy  office 
knew  no  repose  from  their  labor  of  capturing  the  cul- 
prits. In  a  few  days  Fray  Domingo  de  Roxas  was 
taken,  with  several  other  members  of  the  Roxas  fami- 

*  Sandoval,  II.  p.  829. 


200  THE    CLOISTER   LIFE    OF 

ly,  and  several  noble  ladies  of  the  family  of  the  mar- 
quis of  Alcani9es,  a  branch  of  the  great  house  of 
Henriquez.  New  arrestments  and  new  informations 
followed  so  fast  upon  each  other,  that  the  Inquisition 
was  overwhelmed  with  business,  and  its  prisons  filled 
to  overflowing.  Rumors  were  rife  of  a  rising  among 
the  Jews  of  Murcia,  and  of  a  general  emigration  of 
the  Moriscos  of  Aragon  towards  the  frontiers  of 
France.  The  regent  and  her  court  were  at  their 
wits'  ends  at  the  dangers  which  were  thus  thickening 
around  them. 

The  crafty  old  inquisitor-general  alone  rejoiced  in 
the  public  panic  and  confusion.  He  was  now  secure 
from  all  chance  of  being  sent  to  attend  a  royal  corpse 
across  the  kingdom ;  of  being  ordered  into  exile 
amongst  his  refractory  canons ;  or  of  being  fleeced  of 
his  savings  by  the  crown.  So  long  as  the  faithful 
were  menaced  by  this  flood  of  Lutheran  heresy,  so 
long  would  he  be  the  greatest  man  in  the  ark  of  safe- 
ty,—  the  church.  He  therefore  took  his  measures 
rather  to  direct  than  to  lull  the  storm.  Visiting  Sala- 
manca, he  made  there  a  large  seizure  of  Bibles  and 
other  heretical  books,  and  convened  a  council  of  doc- 
tors, with  whose  assistance  he  drew  up  a  censure  on 
the  new  doctrines,  which  he  caused  to  be  published  in 
all  the  cities  of  the  kingdom.  In  order  the  better  to 
probe  the  seat  of  the  disease,  this  zealous  minister  of 
truth  sent  out  a  number  of  spies  to  mix  with  the  sus- 
pected Lutherans,  under  pretence  of  being  inquirers  or 
converts,  and  thus  to  make  themselves  acquainted 
with  their  numbers,  principles,  hopes,  and  designs. 
Lured  to  destruction  by  these  wretches,  many  persons 
of  all  ranks  were  arrested  at  Toro  and  Zamora,  Pa- 


THE    EMPEROR   CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  201 

lencia  and  Logrono.  Seville  was  the  great  southern 
seat  of  heresy,  and  in  the  neighboring  convent  of  St. 
Isidro  del  Carapo,  the  Jeromite  friars  almost  to  a  man 
were  tainted  with  the  new  opinions.  Valladolid, 
however,  was  the  stronghold  of  the  sect,  and  in  spite 
of  the  odor  of  sanctity  which  surrounded  the  pious 
regent,  the  brimstone  savor  of  false  doctrine  offended 
the  orthodox  nostril  in  the  very  precincts  of  the  palace. 

So  engrossed  was  the  emperor  with  the  subject,  that 
he  postponed  to  it  for  a  while  all  other  affairs  of  state. 
He  urged  the  princess  to  remember  that  the  welfare 
of  the  kingdom  and  of  the  church  of  God  was  bound 
up  in  the  suppression  of  heresy,  and  that  therefore  it 
demanded  greater  diligence  and  zeal  than  any  tempo- 
ral matter.  He  had  been  informed  that  the  false 
teachers  had  been  spreading  their  poison  over  the  land 
for  nearly  a  year ;  a  length  of  time  for  which  they 
could  have  eluded  discovery  only  through  the  aid  or 
the  connivance  of  a  great  mass  of  the  people.  If  it 
were  possible,  therefore,  he  would  have  their  crime 
treated  in  a  short  and  summary  manner,  like  sedition 
or  rebellion.  The  king  his  son  had  executed  sharp  and 
speedy  justice  upon  many  heretics,  and  even  upon 
bishops,  in  England ;  how  much  more,  then,  ought  his 
measures  to  be  swift  and  strong  in  his  own  hereditary 
and  Catholic  realms?  He  recommended  the  princess 
to  confer  with  Quixada,  and  employ  him  in  the  busi- 
ness according  as  she  judged  best. 

To  the  king  in  Flanders  he  wrote  in  a  similar  strain, 
insisting  on  the  necessity  of  vigor  and  severity.  And 
as  if  the  letter  penned  by  the  secretary  were  not  suffi- 
ciently forcible  and  distinct,  he  added  this  postscript 
in  his  own  hand :  — 


202  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

"  Son,  the  black  business  which  has  risen  here  has 
shocked  me  as  much  as  you  can  think  or  suppose. 
You  will  see  what  I  have  written  about  it  to  your  sis- 
ter. It  is  essential  that  you  write  to  her  yourself,  and 
that  you  take  all  the  means  in  your  power  to  cut  out 
the  root  of  the  evil  with  rigor  and  rude  handling.  But 
since  you  are  better  disposed,  and  will  assist  more 
warmly,  than  I  can  say  or  wish,  I  will  not  enlarge 
further  thereon.     Your  good  father,  Charles."  * 

After  reading  this  letter  and  postscript,  Philip  wrote 
on  the  margin  this  memorandum  of  a  reply  for  the 
guidance  of  his  secretary:  — 

"  To  kiss  his  hands  for  what  he  has  already  ordered 
in  this  business,  and  to  beg  that  he  will  carry  it  on, 
and  [assure  him]  that  the  same  shall  be  done  here, 
and  [that  I  will  take  care]  to  advise  him  of  what  has 
been  done  up  to  the  present  time."  f 

At  the  end  of  May,  Quixada,  by  the  emperor's  or- 
der, saw  the  inquisitor-general,  and  urged  on  him  the 
expediency  of  despatch  in  his  dealings  with  heretics, 
and  of  even  dispensing  in  their  cases  with  the  ordinary 
forms  of  his  tribunal.  But  in  this,  as  in  every  thing 
else,  archbishop  Valdes  would  take  his  own  way  and 
no  other.     With  his  usual  plausibility,  he  assured  the 

•  "  Hijo,  este  negro  negocio  que  aca  se  ha  levantado,  me  tiene  tan 
escandalizado  cuanto  lo  podeis  pensar  y  juzgar.  Vos  vereis  lo  que  escribo 
Bobre  ello  a  vuestra  hemiana.  Es  menester  que  escribais  y  que  lo  pro- 
cureis  cortar  de  raiz  y  con  mncho  rigor  y  recio  castigo.  Y  porque  se 
teneis  mas  voluntad  y  asistereis  de  mas  hervor  que  yo  lo  saliira  ni  podria 
decir  ni  desear  no  me  alargare  mas  en  esto.  Dc  vuestro  buen  padre, 
Carlos."  —  Emperor  to  Philip  the  Second,  25th  of  May,  1558.  Gonzalez 
MS. 

t  Besalle  los  manos  por  lo  que  en  esto  ha  mandado  y  suplicarle  lo 
lleve  adelante,  que  de  aca  se  hara  lo  mismo  y  avisarle  de  lo  que  se  ha 
hecho  hasta  agora- 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  203 

chamberlain  that  the  roots  of  the  disease  could  not  be 
laid  bare  more  thoroughly  than  by  the  ordinary  opera- 
tions of  inquisitorial  surgery.  Besides,  so  many  peo- 
ple were  crying  out  for  quick  and  condign  punishment 
to  fall  upon  the  criminals,  that  there  was  every  reason 
to  hope  that  the  greater  part  of  the  nation  still  stood 
fast  in  the  faith.  He  had,  however,  sent  for  the  bishop 
of  Tara;^ona  and  the  inquisitor  of  Cuenca  to  assist 
him  in  hearing  cases,  and  would  use  every  prudent 
method  of  shortening  the  proceedings. 

A  few  days  later,  on  the  2d  of  June,  the  archbish- 
op himself  wrote  to  the  emperor,  and  submitted  to 
him  various  new  measures  which  appeared  to  him 
likely  to  be  useful.  First  of  all,  he  would  extend  the 
holy  office  to  Galicia,  Biscay,  and  Asturias,  provinces 
which  had  not  as  yet  benefited  by  its  paternal  care. 
He  next  proposed  to  make  confession  and  communion 
obligatory  upon  all  the  king's  subjects,  and  to  open  a 
register  of  such  persons  as  habitually  absented  them- 
selves from  those  sacraments.  A  third  suggestion 
was,  that  no  schoolmaster  should  be  allowed  to  exer- 
cise his  calling  until  he  had  been  licensed  by  a  lay 
and  a  clerical  examiner.  And  lastly,  the  book  trade 
was  to  be  placed  under  the  severest  restrictions.  It 
was  to  be  declared  unlawful  to  print  any  book  with- 
out the  author's  and  printer's  names,  and  without  the 
permission  of  the  holy  office,  a  permission  which  was 
also  to  be  obtained  before  any  book  could  be  imported 
into  the  kingdom.  Foreigners  were  to  be  forbidden 
from  selling  books ;  and  Spanish  books  printed  abroad 
were  to  be  totally  prohibited.  Booksellers  were  to  be 
compelled  to  hang  up  in  their  shops  lists  of  all  the 
books  which  they  kept  for  sale.     Lastly,  informers 


204  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OP 

were  to  be  rewarded  with  the  third  or  fourth  part  of 
the  property  of  such  persons  as  might  be  convicted 
through  their  means  of  breaches  of  any  of  these  laws. 
Unwise,  unjust,  and  impracticable  as  these  measures 
were,  it  does  not  appear  that  they  were  so  considered 
by  the  emperor,  or  that  he  withheld  his  approval  from 
any  of  their  absurd  provi:?ions.  The  inquisitor-general 
therefore  proceeded  to  enforce  them.  One  of  his  first 
steps  was  to  prepare  a  catalogue  of  books  prohibited 
by  the  church,  which  was  published  at  Valladolid  in 
the  following  year,  and  became  the  harbinger  and 
model  of  the  famous  expurgatory  index,  opened  by 
Paul  the  Fourth,  in  which  the  Vatican  continues  to  re- 
cord its  protest  against  the  advancement  of  knowl- 
edge.* Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  Mariana  and  Solis, 
Cervantes  and  Calderon,  were  forced  to  wait  upon  the 
pleasure  and  tremble  at  the  caprice  of  licenser  after 
licenser;  that  the  beauty,  the  integrity,  and  even  the 
existence,  of  some  of  the  finest  works  of  the  human 
mind  were  so  long  jeoparded  in  the  dirty  hands  of 
stupid  friars.  There  were  ages  in  which  the  church, 
as  the  sanctuary  of  art,  and  knowledge,  and  letters, 
deserved  the  gratitude  of  the  world ;  but  for  the  last 
three  centuries  she  has  striven  to  cancel  the  debt,  in 
the  noble  offspring  of  genius  which  she  has  strangled 
in  the  birth,  and  in  the  vast  fields  of  intellect  which 
her  dark  shadow  has  blighted. 


*  Cathalogus  Lihrorum  qui  prohibentur  Mandato  iUustriss.  et  reverendiss. 
D.  D.  Femandi  de  Vuldes  Hispalen.  Archiepis.  Inquisitoris  Gerteralis  Bis- 
panice  necnon  et  Supremi  SanctcE  ac  Generalis  Inquisitionis  Setiatus.  Hie 
Anno  MDLix.  editiis  Pincice,  4to,  of  28  leaves,  or  56  pages,  including  title. 
It  is  extremely  rare,  and  seems  to  have  been  unknown  to  Brundt.  A 
copy  is  in  the  possession  of  D.  Pascual  de  Gayangos,  at  Madrid. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  205 

For  a  time,  at  least,  the  vigilance  exercised  over 
bookshop  and  library  was  very  strict.  At  Yuste,  Dr. 
Mathys  had  a  small  Bible,  in  French,  and  without 
notes,  which,  in  these  times  of  doubt  and  danger,  he 
feared  might  get  him  into  trouble.  He  therefore 
asked  the  secretary  of  state  to  procure  him  a  license 
to  retain  and  read  the  volume.  Vazquez  replied,  that 
the  inquisitors  demurred  about  granting  this  request; 
and  the  prudent  doctor,  therefore,  soon  after  intimated 
that  he  had  burned  the  forbidden  book  in  the  presence 
of  the  emperor's  confessor. 

The  physician  judged  wisely.  When  court  ladies 
and  Jeromite  friars  were  attacked  with  the  plague  of 
heresy,  and  carried  off  to  the  hospitals  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion, who  could  feel  certain  of  escaping  the  epidemic,  or 
the  cure?  The  most  catholic  horror  of  the  new  doc- 
trines was  therefore  professed  at  Yuste ;  and  Gaztelu, 
reporting,  at  the  beginning  of  June,  that  ceaseless  rain 
had  been  falling  for  nearly  twenty  days,  remarked, 
that  such  weather  would  do  much  damage  in  the 
country,  but  that  the  errors  of  Luther  would  do  far 
more.  The  emperor  was  much  distressed  by  a  rumor 
that  a  son  of  father  Borja  had  been  arrested  at  Se- 
ville. He  immediately  wrote  to  the  secretary  of  state 
to  send  him  a  statement  of  the  fact,  and  was  relieved 
by  learning  that  it  was  not  known  at  court.  It  turned 
out  to  be  a  fiction  of  the  friars  of  Yuste,  who,  thinking 
it  hard  that  the  fold  of  Jerome  alone  should  have  the 
shame  of  harboring  wolves  in  sheep's  clothing,  were 
nothing  loath  to  cast  a  stone  at  the  austerely  orthodox 
and  rapidly  rising  company  of  Jesus.  On  discovering 
the  story's  source  the  emperor  was  not  greatly  sur- 
prised ;  for,  said  Gaztelu,  "  the  friars  and  Flemings 
18 


206  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

are  ever  filling  his  ears  with  fables,  and  I  myself  stink 
in  their  nostrils  by  reason  of  the  many  lies  I  have 
brought  home  to  them." 

Another  rumor,  which  was  better  founded,  spoke  of 
the  arrest  of  Pompeyo  Leoni,  one  of  the  royal  artists. 
Much  annoyed,  the  emperor  applied  to  Vazquez  for 
information  of  the  crime  of  "  Pompeyo,  son  of  Leoni, 
the  sculptor  who  made  my  bust  and  the  king's,  and 
brought  them  with  him  to  Spain  in  the  fleet  in 
which  I  myself  came  hither."  The  secretary  an- 
swered that  the  sculptor  was  imprisoned  for  main- 
taining certain  Lutheran  propositions;  and  that  he 
was  sentenced  to  appear  at  an  auto-de-fe,  and  after- 
wards suffer  a  year's  imprisonment  in  a  monastery ; 
but  that  the  busts  were  in  safety. 

At  Seville,  Fray  Domingo  de  Guzman,  also  a  new- 
made  prisoner,  was  likewise  known  to  the  emperor. 
Of  him,  however,  on  hearing  of  his  arrest,  Charles 
merely  remarked  that  he  might  have  been  locked  up 
as  much  for  being  an  idiot  as  for  being  a  heretic.  A 
more  illustrious  victim  of  the  Andalusian  holy  office 
was  Constantino  Ponce  de  la  Fuente,  magistral 
canon  of  Seville,  and  famous  as  a  scholar,  as  a  pulpit- 
orator,  and  as  author  of  several  theological  works 
much  esteemed  both  in  Italy  and  Spain.  He  had 
attended  the  emperor  in  Germany  as  his  preacher 
and  almoner,  and  one  of  his  writings  was,  at  this 
time,  on  the  imperial  bookshelf  at  Yuste.*  For  him 
Charles  entertained  more  respect,  and  upon  hearing 
that  he  had  been  committed  to  the  castle  of  Triana, 
observed,  "  If  Constantino  be  a  heretic,  he  will  prove  a 

*  Sandoval,  II.  p.  829. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  207 

great  one."  *  Like  Cazalla,  the  canon,  after  thunder- 
ing against  reform  in  the  land  of  reform,  had  returned 
to  Spain  a  reformer.  His  immediate  "  merits,"  for  so 
the  Inquisition,  with  grim  irony,  called  the  acts  or 
opinions  which  qualified  a  man  for  the  stake,  were 
certain  heretical  treatises  in  his  handwriting  which 
had  been  dug,  with  his  other  papers,  out  of  a  wall. 

Notwithstanding  the  crowded  state  of  the  prisons, 
the  Inquisition  did  not  see  fit  to  vary,  during  this  year, 
the  monotony  of  the  bull-fights  by  indulging  the  peo- 
ple with  an  auto-de-fe.  The  emperor  was  therefore 
dead  before  the  unhappy  clergymen,  who  had  stood 
by  his  bed  in  sickness  and  conversed  with  him  at  table 
in  health,  were  sent  to  expiate  with  their  blood  their 
speculative  offences  against  the  church.  Dr.  Cazalla 
was  one  of  fourteen  heretics  who  were  "relaxed,"  or, 
in  secular  speech,  burnt,  in  May,  1559,  at  Valladolid, 
before  the  regent  and  his  court.  Unhappily  for  his 
party  and  for  his  own  fair  fame,  the  poor  chaplain  be- 
haved with  a  pusillanimity  very  rare  amongst  Span- 
iards when  brought  face  to  face  with  inevitable  death, 
or  amongst  men  who  suffer  for  conscience'  sake. 
Denying  the  crime  of  "  dogmatizing,"  as  the  Inquisi- 
tion well  called  preaching,  he  confessed  that  he  had 
held  heretical  opinions,  and  abjectly  abjured  them  all. 
His  tears  and  cries,  as  in  his  robe,  painted  with 
devils,  he  walked  in  the  sad  procession  and  stood 
upon  the  fatal  stage,  moved  the  contempt  of  his  com- 
panions, amongst  whom  his  brother  and  sister  had 
also  come  calmly  to  die.  At  the  price  of  this  humili- 
ation he  obtained  the  grace  of  being  strangled  before 

*  Chap.  IV.  p.  102. 


208  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

he  was  cast  into  the  flames.  A  report  had  spread 
amongst  the  populace  that  he  had  declared  that,  if  his 
penitence  and  sufferings  should  obtain  him  salva- 
tion, he  would  appear  the  day  after  his  death  riding 
through  the  city  on  a  white  horse.  The  inquisitors, 
availing  themselves  of  a  rumor  of  which  they  perhaps 
were  authors,  next  day  turned  a  white  horse  loose  in 
the  streets,  and  caused  it  to  be  whispered  that  the 
steed  was  indeed  ridden  by  the  departed  doctor,  al- 
though not  in  such  shape  as  to  be  visible  to  every 
carnal  eye.*  Fray  Francisco  de  Roxas,  amidst  a  band 
in  which  the  shepherd  and  the  muleteer  were  asso- 
ciated in  suffering  and  in  glory  with  the  noble  knight 
and  the  delicate  lady,  died  bravely,  in  October,  1559, 
at  Valladolid,  in  the  presence  of  Philip  the  Second. 
Fray  Domingo  de  Guzman  suffered  at  Seville  in 
1560,  in  that  auto-de-fe  in  which  English  Nicholas 
Burton  also  perished,  and  in  which  Juana  Bohorques, 
a  young  mother  who  had  been  racked  to  death  a  few 
weeks  before,  was  solemnly  declared  to  have  been 
innocent  by  her  murderers  themselves.  Constantino 
Ponce  de  la  Fuente,  confessing  to  the  proscribed  doc- 
trines, but  refusing  to  name  his  disciples,  had  been 
thrown  into  a  dungeon,  dark  and  noisome  as  Jere- 
miah's pit,  far  below  the  level  of  the  Guadalquivir, 
where  a  dysentery  soon  delivered  him  from  chains 
and  the  hands  of  his  tormentors.  "  Yet  did  not  his 
body,"  says  a  churchman,  writing  some  time  after,  in 
the  true  spirit  of  orthodoxy,  and  with  all  the  bitterness 
of  contemporary  gall,f  "for  this  escape  the  avenging 


*  A.  de  Castro  :  Sjianish  Protestants,  p.  98. 

t  Nicolas  Antonio :  art.  Constantino  Ponce  de  la  Fuente. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE     FIFTH.  209 

flames."  At  this  same  auto-de-fe  of  1560,  they 
burned  the  exhumed  bones  of  Constantino,  together 
with  his  effigy,  modelled  with  some  care,  and  imitat- 
ing, with  outstretched  arms,  the  attitude  in  which  he 
was  wont  to  charm  the  crowds  that  gathered  beneath 
his  pulpit  at  Seville. 

During  the  progress  of  the  hunt  after  heretics 
Charles  frequently  conversed  with  his  confessor  and 
the  prior  on  the  subject  which  lay  so  near  his  heart. 
So  keen  was  his  hatred  of  the  very  name  of  heresy, 
that  he  once  reproved  Regla  for  citing,  in  his  pres- 
ence, in  proof  of  some  indifferent  topic,  a  passage 
from  a  book  by  one  Juan  Fero,  because  that  forgotten 
writer  was  then  known  to  have  been  no  Catholic*  In 
looking  back  on  the  early  religious  troubles  of  his  reign, 
it  was  ever  his  regret  that  he  did  not  put  Luther  to 
death  when  he  had  him  in  his  power.  He  had  spared 
him,  he  said,  on  account  of  his  pledged  word,  which, 
indeed,  he  would  have  been  bound  to  respect  in  any 
case  which  concerned  his  own  authority  alone ;  but 
he  now  saw  that  he  had  greatly  erred  in  preferring  the 
obligation  of  a  promise  to  the  higher  duty  of  aveng- 
ing upon  that  arch-heretic  his  offences  against  God. 
Had  Luther  been  removed,  he  conceived  that  the 
plague  might  have  been  stayed ;  but  now  it  seemed  to 
rage  with  ever-increasing  fury.  He  had  some  conso- 
lation, however,  in  recollecting  how  steadily  he  had 
refused  to  hear  the  points  at  issue  between  the  church 
and  the  schismatics  argued  in  his  presence.  At  this 
price  he  had  declined  to  purchase  the  support  of  some 


•  Salazar  de  Mendo^a:  Diffnidades  de  Costilla,  fol.,  Madrid,  1617, 
fol.  161. 

18* 


210 


THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OP 


of  the  Protestant  princes  of  the  empire,  when  he  first 
took  the  field  against  the  Saxon  and  the  Hessian :  he 
had  refused  to  buy  aid  at  this  price,  even  when  flying 
with  only  ten  horsemen  before  the  army  of  duke 
Maurice.  He  knew  the  danger,  especially  for  the  un- 
learned, of  parleying  with  heretics  who  had  their  quiv- 
ers full  of  reasons  so  apt  and  so  well  ordered.  Sup- 
pose one  of  their  specious  arguments  had  been  planted 
in  his  soul,  how  did  he  know  that  he  could  ever  have 
got  it  rooted  out?*  Thus  did  a  great  man  misread 
the  spirit  of  his  time;  thus  did  he  cling,  to  the  last,  to 
the  sophisms  of  blind  guides  who  taught  that  crass 
ignorance  was  saving  faith,  and  that  the  delectable 
mountains  of  spiritual  perfection  were  to  be  climbed 
only  by  those  who  would  walk  with  stopped  ears  and 
hoodwinked  eyes. 

In  this  year,  cardinal  Siliceo  having  gone  to  St. 
Ildefonso's  bosom,  the  vacant  archiepiscopal  throne 
of  Toledo  became  a  mark  for  the  intrigues  of  every 
ambitious  churchman  within  the  dominions  of  Spain. 
The  grand  inquisitor,  busy  as  he  was  with  his  massa- 
cre of  the  innocents,  of  court<e  found  time  to  urge  his 
claim  to  a  seventh  mitre.  But  his  niggard  responses 
to  the  appeals  of  the  needy  crown  were  still  remem- 
bered both  at  Bruxelles  and  at  Yuste ;  so  for  him 
promotion  came  neither  from  the  north  nor  from  the 
west. 

The  golden  prize  was  given  to  Fray  Bartolome 
Carranza  de  Miranda,  a  name  which  stands  high  on 
the  list  of  the  Wolseys  of  the  world,  of  men  remem- 
bered less  for  the  splendid  heights  to  which  they  had 

*  Sanduval,  II.  p.  829. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  211 

climbed,  than  for  their  sudden  and  signal  fall.  From 
a  simple  Dominican  monk,  Carranza  had  risen  to  be 
a  professor  at  Valladolid,  a  leading  doctor  of  Trent, 
prior  of  Palencia,  provincial  of  Spain,  and  prime  ad- 
viser of  Philip  the  Second  in  that  short-lived  return  to 
popery  which  Spanish  churchmen  loved  to  call  the 
restoration  of  England.  In  England  the  ruthless 
black  friar  had  been  a  mark  for  popular  vengeance; 
and  Oxford,  Cambridge,  and  Lambeth  long  remem- 
bered how  he  had  preached  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass, 
how  he  helped  to  dig  up  the  bones  of  Bucer,  and  how 
he  had  aided  at  the  burning  of  Cranmer.  For  these 
services  his  master  had  rewarded  him  with  the  richest 
see  in  Christendom;  and  he  came  to  Spain  in  the 
summer  to  take  possession  of  his  throne,  little  dream- 
ing that  his  implacable  and  indefatigable  rival,  the 
inquisitor  Valdes,  was  already  preparing  the  indict- 
ment which  was  to  make  his  primatical  reign  a  long 
disgrace. 

Carranza  had  been  well  known  to  the  emperor, 
who  had  given  him  his  first  step  on  the  ladder  of  pro- 
motion by  sending  him  to  display  his  lore  and  his 
eloquence  at  the  council  of  Trent.  There  he  acquit- 
ted himself  so  well,  that  Charles  offered  him,  first  the 
Peruvian  bishopric  of  Cuzco,  next  the  post  of  confes- 
sor to  prince  Philip,  and  lastly  the  bishopric  of  the 
Canaries.  His  refusal  of  all  these  dignities  some- 
what surprised  his  patron ;  and  this  surprise  became 
displeasure  when  lije  learned  that  the  refuser  had  ac- 
cepted the  mitre  of  Toledo.  William,  one  of  the 
emperor's  barbers,  related  that  he  had  heard  his  mas- 
ter say,  "  When  I  offered  Carranza  the  Canaries  he 
declined  it ;  now  he  takes  Toledo.     What  are  we  to 


212  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

think  of  his  virtue?"  These  feelings  were  doubtless 
fostered  by  his  confessor,  Regla,  who,  as  a  Jeromite, 
naturally  hated  a  Dominican,  and  afterwards  proved 
himself  one  of  the  bitterest  enemies  of  the  persecuted 
prelate.  The  truth  is,  that  Carranza,  though  a  priest, 
seems  to  have  been  an  honest  and  unambitious  man ; 
he  carried  his  reluctance  so  far  beyond  the  bounds  of 
decent  clerical  coyness,  as  to  recommend  to  the  king 
three  eminent  rivals  as  better  qualified  than  himself 
for  the  primacy ;  *  and  the  great  crosier  was  thrust  by 
Philip  into  his  unwilling  hand,  on  the  ground  that  he 
was  of  all  men  best  fitted  to  keep  the  wolf  of  heresy 
from  the  door  of  the  true  fold. 

The  emperor  had  given  away,  in  his  time,  too 
many  mitres  to  wonder  long  at  the  worldly-minded- 
ness  of  a  churchman.  Valdes,  also,  was  too  astute  to 
attempt  to  injure  his  rival  merely  by  alleging  against 
him  a  vice  inherent  in  their  common  cloth.  He 
stabbed,  therefore,  at  what  was  then  the  tenderest 
spot  in  any  reputation,  prieslly  or  laic,  by  casting  a 
suspicion  on  his  orthodoxy.  Before  the  unconscious 
archbishop  arrived  at  court,  the  inquisitor  secretly  in- 
formed the  regent  that  many  of  the  captive  heretics 
had  made  very  unpleasant  confessions  respecting  the 
opinions  of  the  new  primate  ;  and  that  the  king  ought 
to  be  put  on  his  guard  against  him  ;  and  he  gave  a 
glimpse  into  the  ways  of  his  tribunal,  by  adding,  that 
although  nothing  substantial  had  yet  been  advanced, 
still,  had  as  much  been  said  of  an^  other  person,  that 
person  would  already  have  been  taken  into  custody. 

*  Salazar   dc   Miranda:   Vide  de  Fr.  Bart,  de  Carranza  y  Miratida, 
12mo,  Madrid,  1788,  p.  34. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  213 

The  infanta  of  course  forwarded  this  intelligence  to 
Yuste,  and  the  emperor  expressed  a  wish  to  hear  more 
of  the  matter,  desiring,  however,  that  it  should  be 
handled  with  the  greatest  caution  and  reserve. 

Carranza  sailed  from  Flanders  on  the  24th  of  June, 
but  being  detained  by  contrary  winds  on  the  English 
shore,  he  did  not  land  at  Laredo  until  the  beginning 
of  August.  On  the  13th  of  that  month  he  kissed  the 
regent's  hand  at  Valladolid,  where  he  resided  for 
some  weeks  in  great  honor  in  the  noble  convent  of 
San  Pablo,  with  his  brethren  of  the  order  of  St.  Dom- 
inick.  Caressed  and  consulted  both  by  the  princess 
and  by  the  knot  of  priests  who  were  plotting  his  ruin, 
he  took  his  seat  several  times  in  the  council  of  state, 
and  also  at  the  council  board  of  the  Inquisition.  To 
the  latter  tribunal  he  gave  an  account  of  his  proceed- 
ings against  heresy  in  Flanders,  and  against  the  Span- 
iards who  had  fled  thither  from  spiritual  justice;  and 
he  assisted  the  inquisitor-general  with  advice  upon 
the  new  laws  to  be  promulgated  against  the  press. 
He  was,  however,  desirous  of  proceeding  to  his  dio- 
cese, being  unwilling  to  break,  at  the  outset  of  his 
episcopal  career,  the  rules  which  he  had  laid  down  in 
his  tract,  written  when  he  was  a  simple  monk,  on  the 
residence  of  bishops,  a  tract  which  gained  him  many 
enemies  among  the  hierarchy,*  and  which  must  have 
been  peculiarly  distasteful  to  the  absentee  of  Seville. 
It  was  determined,  therefore,  that  he  should  visit 
Yuste,  as  he  went  to  Toledo,  in  order  to  lay  before 
the  emperor  some  evidence  on  the  quarrel  between  his 


*  Noticia  de  la  Vida  de  Bart   Carranza  de  Miranda,  par  D.  M.  S.,  8vo, 
Madrid,  1845,  p.  7. 


214  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

eldest  daughter  Mary  and  her  husband,  Maxinailian, 
king  of  Bohemia,  whom  she  charged  with  inconstan- 
cy, and  wished  to  be  parted  from.  This  affair  being 
referred  to  the  decision  of  Charles,  he  was  desirous  of 
having  an  account  of  it  from  a  prudent  and  impartial 
witness. 

The  war  in  Flanders  had  continued  to  smoulder  on 
during  the  spring,  with  few  actions  worthy  of  record, 
and  little  loss  or  gain  to  either  party.  At  the  end  of 
April,  the  French  must  have  made  a  movement  caus- 
ing some  alarm  at  Bruxelles,  for  on  the  3d  of  May  a 
cabinet  courier,  named  Espinosa,  was  sent  off  by 
land  to  Spain,  with  a  cipher  despatch  concealed  in  his 
stirrup-leathers.  Galloping  across  the  enemy's  coun- 
try without  let  or  hindrance,  he  reached  Valladolid 
on  the  10th,  and  was  sent  on  by  the  princess  to  carry 
his  news,  and  tell  his  story  at  Yuste.  The  emperor 
gave  him  a  long  audience,  and  overwhelmed  him 
with  questions  about  the  king's  measures  of  defence, 
which  appeared  to  the  old  soldier  to  be  better  than 
usual.  "  He  asked,"  wrote  the  secretary,  "  more 
questions  than  were  ever  put  to  the  damsel  Theo- 
dora," * —  a  Christian  slave  whose  beauty  and  various 
erudition  charmed  a  king  of  Tunis,  in  an  old  and  pop- 
ular Spanish  tale.f  In  a  few  weeks,  however,  the 
duke  of  Guise  marched  upon  the  Moselle,  and  stormed 

•  "  Le  hizo,"  said  Gazteln,  "  mas  pregnntas  qne  se  pudieran  hacer  a 
la  donzella  Theodor."  —  Gaztcla  to  Vazquezj  18th  of  May,  1558.  Gon- 
zalez MS. 

t  The  Historia  de  la  Donzella  Theodora  was  a  popular  ston',  written, 
no  one  seems  to  know  when,  bv  one  Alfonso,  an  Aragonese.  Antonio 
assigns  a  date  neither  to  the  book  nor  the  author.  The  earliest  edition 
cited  by  Brunei  is  that  of  1607.  The  tale  was  afterwards  dramatized  by 
Lope  de  Vega.     Ticknor,  Hist,  of  Span.  Lit.,  II.  312. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  215 

the  important  and  strongly  fortified  town  of  Thion- 
ville,  putting  the  greater  part  of  the  garrison  to  the 
sword,  and  expelling  the  inhabitants  in  order  to  give 
their  homes  to  a  colony  of  his  old  clients  of  Metz. 
This  loss  was  severely  felt  by  the  emperor,  who  con- 
tinued to  deplore  it,  until  he  was  comforted  by  the 
tidings  of  the  victory  at  Gravelines. 

The  marechal  de  Thermes,  governor  of  Calais,  wish- 
ing to  illustrate  his  new  baton  by  some  gallant  ser- 
vice, had  undertaken  a  foray  into  the  Spanish  Nether- 
lands. Having  carried  fire  and  sword,  rapine  and 
rape,  along  a  considerable  length  of  coast,  he  was  at 
last  met  by  Egmont,  near  the  town  of  Gravelines,  on 
the  banks  of  the  Aa.  The  battle,  fought  for  several 
hours  with  great  obstinacy,  was  at  last  turned  against 
the  lilies  by  the  sudden  appearance  of  an  English 
sailor,  who  mingled  in  the  fray  with  all  the  effect  of 
Neptune  in  an  Homeric  field.  Cruising  along  the 
coast  with  twelve  small  vessels,  admiral  Milan,  hear- 
ing the  firing,  put  into  the  river,  and  galled  the  flank 
of  the  French  with  broadsides  so  unexpected  and  se- 
vere, that  they  were  soon  in  headlong  flight.  Two 
hundred  prisoners  were  reserved  as  curious  trophies 
by  the  English  tars  ;  the  greater  part  of  the  army  was 
cut  off  in  detail  by  the  furious  peasantry  ;  the  mare- 
chal and  his  chief  officers  fell  into  the  hands  of  Eg- 
mont ;  and  the  battle,  which  was  the  last  event  of  any 
importance  in  the  war,  had  a  considerable  influence 
in  bringing  about  the  peace  of  Cateail-Cambresis  in 
the  following  winter.  But  the  emperor  had,  as  usual, 
to  lament  the  opportunities  wasted  by  his  son;  and 
often  observed,  that  now  was  the  time  to  have  invest- 
ed Calais,  when  the  enemy  was  disheartened,  the  gar- 


216  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

rison  weakened,  and  the  governor  taken.  Luis  Quixa- 
da  entertained  the  same  idea,  which,  however,  does 
not  appear  to  have  struck  any  of  the  leaders  in  Flan- 
ders. The  chamberlain  was  especially  delighted  to 
hear  of  the  capture  of  Monsieur  de  Villebon,  one  of 
the  marechal's  lieutenants.  "  I  knew  him  very  well," 
he  wrote  to  Vazquez,  "  when  he  served  under  the 
duke  of  Vendome  in  Picardy ;  and  when  we  were  at 
Hesdin,  he  was  quartered  in  a  town  only  two  or  three 
leagues  off,  so  that  we  frequently  corresponded  by 
letters.  I  should  have  taken  him  myself  one  day,  had 
a  spy  given  me  intelligence  two  hours  sooner.  He  is 
a  man  quite  able  to  pay  a  ransom  of  twelve  or  fifteen 
thousand  crowns."  * 

Meanwhile,  the  dreaded  navy  of  Solyman  was 
again  menacing  the  shores  of  Spain.  Early  in  spring 
a  cloud  of  Turkish  sail  had  been  seen  so  far  in  the 
west  that  it  was  thought  necessary  to  victual  and 
strengthen  the  garrision  of  Goleta.  On  the  5th  of 
May,  Don  Luis  dc  Castelvi  came  to  Yuste  to  report 
on  the  affairs  of  Italy,  and  brought  with  him  such  in- 
telligence of  a  treaty  which  was  said  to  be  then  form- 
ing between  France  and  the  pope,  the  Venetian  and 
the  Turk,  that  the  emperor  ordered  him  to  proceed  at 
once  to  the  king  at  Bruxelles.  In  June  a  squadron 
of  Algerine  galleys  gave  chase  to  a  line  of  battle  ship 
sent  by  the  viceroy  of  Sicily  with  further  munitions  to 
Goleta,  and  forced  her  to  put  back  and  run  for  Sar- 
dinia. The  Turkish  navy  was  known  to  be  assem- 
bling at  Negropont,  and  it  was  at  one  time  supposed, 
though  erroneously,  that  a  French  ambassador  was 

*  Qi;iixa(j[ft  to  Vazquez,  17th  August,  1558. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  217 

on  board,  for  the  purpose  of  directing  a  descent  on  the 
dominions  of  Spain.  The  government  of  Valladolid, 
therefore,  congratulated  itself  on  having  taken  the 
advice  of  the  emperor,  and  having  sent  eight  thousand 
men  and  four  hundred  lances  to  Oran,  under  the 
count  of  Alcaudete.  Towards  the  middle  of  June  an 
Ottoman  fleet  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  sail  was  de- 
scried from  the  watch-towers  of  Naples ;  a  French 
squadron  put  out  to  meet  them  with  provisions ;  and 
at  the  end  of  the  month  the  Turkish  flag  was  flying 
proudly  on  Christian  waters  among  the  islands  of 
Spain.  Charles  considered  that  the  first  point  of  at- 
tack was  very  likely  to  be  Rosas,  a  Catalonian  fortress 
on  which  France  had  long  looked  with  a  covetous 
eye,  and  he  therefore  urged  upon  the  regent  the  im- 
portance of  making  its  defences  secure.  Mustapha 
pacha  did  not  long  leave  the  matter  in  suspense,  for, 
after  threatening  Mallorca,  and  finding  it  too  strong, 
he  steered  for  the  smaller  island  of  Menorca,  and  cast 
anchor,  with  a  hundred  and  forty  sail,  before  the  town 
of  Ciudadella.  Landing  fifteen  thousand  men  and 
twenty-four  pieces  of  cannon,  he  battered  the  place 
for  seven  days,  and  made  several  attempts  to  storm 
it ;  but  the  obstinate  valor  of  the  Menorcans  would 
probably  have  baflfled  his  efforts,  had  it  not  been  for  a 
fire,  which,  breaking  out  in  the  university,  blew  up  the 
magazine  and  a  great  part  of  the  town  wall.  The 
besieged  then  made  a  gallant  sally,  with  their  women, 
children,  and  wounded,  hoping  to  cross  the  island  to 
Mahon,  a  feat  which  was  actually  accomplished, 
though  not  without  severe  loss.  The  disappointed 
Turk  sacked  and  pillaged  the  town,  and  having  col- 
lected his  booty  and  a  few  prisoners,  put  to  sea  the 

19 


218  THE    CLOISTER     LIFE    OF 

same  night.*  Taking  a  northerly  course,  he  was  sup- 
posed to  have  gone  to  Marseilles  to  water  and  victual 
his  fleet. 

Meanwhile,  all  precautions  were  taken  to  strength- 
en the  defences  of  the  eastern  coast.  Twelve  hundred 
men  were  thrown  into  Perpignan,  and  Don  Garcia  de 
Toledo  was  sent  to  take  the  command  of  that  impor- 
tant frontier  post.  The  defence  of  the  coast  of  Anda- 
lusia was  intrusted  to  the  count  of  Tendilla.  The 
duke  of  Maqueda  was  ordered  to  exercise  the  closest 
vigilance  over  the  Moriscos  of  Catalonia  and  Valen- 
cia, especially  at  Denia  and  Alicante  ;  a  force  of  five  or 
six  hundred  men  was  appointed  to  guard  the  sierras 
of  Espadon  and  Bernia,  strongholds  of  the  suspected 
race ;  and  a  few  watch-towers  were  repaired  and  in- 
trenched for  rallying-posts,  strict  orders  being  also 
issued  to  the  commanders  to  destroy  them  as  soon  as 
the  danger  was  past,  lest  the  defences  of  the  Christian 
should  become  offensive  positions  of  the  Moor.  The 
emperor  was  much  distressed  at  the  fall  of  Ciudadella. 
His  anxiety  made  him  forget  his  ailments ;  and  such 
was  his  eagerness  for  news,  that  he  gave  orders  that 
he  was  to  be  called  at  whatever  hour  of  the  night  a 
courier  should  arrive  from  the  Mediterranean.  The 
alarm  did  not  subside  until  the  17th  of  August,  when 
tidings  came  from  Catalonia  that  the  Ottoman  flag 
had  disappeared  from  that  part  of  the  sea,  and  that 
Don  Francisco  de  Cordova,  son  of  the  governor  of 
Oran,  who  had  been  hovering  on  the  pacha's  wake 
with  two  galleys  of  the  order  of  St.  John,  reported 

•  Y.  Mut:  Historia  del  Reyno  de  Mallorca,  fol.,  Mallorca,  1650,  Lib.  X. 
Cap.  7,  p.  453,  which  ought  to  be  436,  there  being  an  error  in  the  paging 
of  this  very  rare  volunae  from  p.  69  to  the  end. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  219 

that  the  fleet  had  at  last  steered  for  the  Levant.  On 
the  same  day  it  was  also  announced  at  Yuste  that 
some  reprisal  for  the  damage  done  at  Menorca  had 
been  made  by  the  duke  of  Alburquerque  on  the  infi- 
del's most  Christian  brother  of  France,  by  crossing 
the  Bidassoa  and  burning  St.  Jean  de  Luz. 

While  the  Turk  was  thus  spreading  terror  along 
the  coast  of  Spain,  and  troubling  the  repose  of  Yuste, 
the  hero  who  was  first  to  quell  his  pride,  and  set 
bounds  to  the  dominion  of  the  crescent,  was  waging 
predatory  war  upon  the  orchards  of  Quacos.  Early 
in  July,  Quixada  returned  from  Valladolid  and  Villa- 
garcia,  bringing  with  him  his  wife  and  household,  and 
the  future  victor  of  Lepanto.  During  the  journey, 
Dona  Magdalena  suffered  greatly  from  the  summer 
heat ;  but  she  was  consoled  for  her  fatigues  by  the 
kindness  and  courtesy  of  the  emperor.  Immediately 
on  her  arrival,  he  sent  one  of  his  attendants  to  call 
upon  her  w^ith  presents,  and  to  bid  her  welcome  to 
her  new  home :  and  some  days  after,  when  she  came 
to  Yuste  to  kiss  his  hand,  he  received  her  with  marked 
favor.  In  this  visit  she  was  doubtless  attended  by 
Don  John  of  Austria,  who  passed  for  her  page  ;  and 
the  emperor  was  said  to  be  much  pleased  with  the 
beauty  and  manners  of  his  boy.  But  so  strictly  was 
the  secret  of  his  birth  kept,  that  no  mention  of  his 
existence  is  to  be  found  in  any  extant  correspondence 
between  Yuste,  Valladolid,  and  Bruxelles,  during  the 
lifetime  of  the  emperor.  Yet  his  real  parentage  was 
suspected  in  the  country,  probably  on  account  of  the 
attention  which  he  met  with  at  Yuste,  and  which 
was  not  likely  to  escape  the  notice  of  the  idle  and 
gossiping  friars  and  Flemings.     The  crossbow  with 


220  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

which  the  future  admiral  had  dealt  destruction 
amongst  the  sparrows  and  larks  in  the  cornfields 
about  Leganes,  found  ampler  and  nobler  game  in 
the  woodlands  of  the  Estremaduran  hills.  But  he 
sometimes  varied  his  sport  by  making  forays  upon 
the  gardens  of  Quacos,  which  the  peasants,  nothing 
daunted  by  his  whispered  rank,  resented  by  pelting 
him  with  stones  when  they  caught  him  in  their  fruit- 
trees.* 

Early  in  July  the  emperor  was  alarmed  by  hearing 
of  the  illness  of  his  daughter,  the  princess-regent, 
who  was  attacked  by  a  fever,  which  prevented  her 
attention  to  business  for  a  few  days.  He  expressed 
great  anxiety  on  her  account,  and  ordered  frequent 
couriers  to  bring  him  intelligence  of  her  state,  which, 
however,  was  never  dangerous,  and  soon  approached 
convalescence.  Amongst  the  last  public  measures 
which  Juana  brought  under  the  notice  of  her  father, 
was  a  scheme  for  changing  the  seat  of  government. 
She  was  in  favor  of  a  change,  as  she  considered 
Valladolid  neither  healthy  nor  conveniently  situated. 
Many  members  of  the  council  of  state  were,  however, 
opposed  to  it,  "  but  you  know,"  wrote  the  infanta, 
"  how  these  gentlemen  prefer  their  ease  and  good  lodg- 
ing before  all  things."  Madrid  appeared  to  her  the 
fittest  place,  were  it  not  so  disliked  by  the  king;  and 
she  also  mentioned  the  names  of  Toledo,  Burgos,  and 
Guadalaxara.  The  plan  was  not  executed  until  some 
years  after  the  return  of  Philip  to  Spain.  The  king 
having  agreed  that  Don  Carlos  and  his  tutor  should 
be  sent  to  Yuste,  and  the  emperor  being  unwilling  to 

*  Ponz:  Viage  de  Espana,  VII.  p.  140. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  221 

receive  them,  the  princess  proposed  ^hat  she  should 
accompany  her  nephew  thither,  in  order  to  visit  her 
father,  and  confer  with  him  on  this  question  of  the 
capita],  and  other  business  of  state.  The  queen  of 
Hungary  was  likewise  to  be  of  the  party,  it  being 
the  wish  of  Philip  that  the  emperor  should  persuade 
her  to  return  to  the  Low  Countries,  and  once  more 
assume  the  government.  The  removal  of  the  heir 
apparent,  and  the  visit  of  the  royal  ladies  to  Yuste, 
were,  however,  prevented  by  the  fatal  illness  of  the 
emperor. 

Another  affair  which  weighed  on  the  mind  of  the 
princess  at  this  time  was  a  dispute  between  her  and 
the  council  of  state.  A  young  courtier,  the  adelan- 
tado  of  Canary,  after  making  love  to  one  of  her  ladies, 
finally  proposed  for  her  hand,  and  was  accepted.  But 
failing  in  the  performance  of  his  promise,  he  met  the 
complaint  made  by  the  fair  one  to  the  regent  by  pro- 
testing that  the  matter  was  a  joke,  and  that  he  had 
never  considered  it  as  serious.  The  princess,  though 
she  preferred  her  ladies  to  become  brides  of  heaven 
rather  than  wives  of  mortals,  was  highly  indignant 
with  the  lord  of  Canary,  and  caged  him  in  the  tower 
of  Medina  del  Campo.  The  council  of  state  here 
interfered,  alleging  that  it  had  a  right  to  be  consulted 
in  any  similar  case  of  imprisonment.  The  regent 
therefore  remitted  the  affair  to  the  emperor,  entreating 
him,  however,  to  decide  in  her  favor  ;  for  it  much  con- 
cerned, as  she  conceived,  the  dignity  of  her  house- 
hold, that  young  men  should  not  be  permitted  to 
plight  their  troth  to  her  ladies,  before  witnesses  and 
in  her  very  antechamber,  and  then  flutter  off  on  the 
plea  that  the  thing  was  a  jest.     The  award   of  the 

19" 


222  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

emperor,  and  the  after-fate  of  the  false  wooer  and  for- 
saken damsel,  have  not  been  recorded. 

In  the  spring  of  this  year  the  monotony  of  the  con- 
ventual life  at  Yuste  was  broken  by  the  death  of  the 
prior.  He  died  at  Lupiana,  where  he  had  gone  to 
attend  the  chapter  of  his  order.  That  chapter  had 
elected  as  general  the  prior  of  Cordoba,  who  likewise 
died  before  the  electors  separated.  The  new  general 
being  Fray  Juan  de  A^aloras,  one  of  the  emperor's 
preachers,  the  friars  of  Yuste  petitioned  the  emperor 
to  request  him  to  wave  his  privilege,  and  permit  them 
to  choose  their  new  prior.  But  Charles,  to  the  great 
delight  of  his  household,  at  once,  and  rather  drily,  re- 
fused to  meddle  in  the  matter,  or  to  interfere  with  the 
rules  of  their  order;  and  the  vacant  post  was  therefore 
given,  in  the  usual  way,  to  Fray  Martin  de  Angulo,  a 
monk  of  Guadalupe. 

Don  Luis  de  Avila  was,  as  usual,  a  frequent  guest 
at  Yuste.  During  this  year  he  had  a  lawsuit  in 
hand,  regarding  his  jurisdiction  as  lieutenant  of  the 
castle  of  Plasencia ;  and  he  of  course  attempted  to 
enlist  in  his  cause  the  favor  of  the  emperor,  who 
would,  however,  say  nothing  until  he  had  heard  the 
other  side  of  the  story  from  the  secretary  of  state. 
The  grand  commander  seems  also  to  have  been  ap- 
plying for  employment ;  and  a  false  report  was  spread 
in  July,  that  he  had  actually  set  out  for  Flanders  by 
order  of  the  king.  The  bishop  of  Avila  paid  a  visit 
in  April,  which  was  followed  in  May  by  his  transla- 
tion to  the  wealthy  see  of  Cordoba;  and  in  June  the 
bishop  of  Segovia  offered  to  come  and  give  thanks 
for  his  promotion  to  the  archbishopric  of  Santiago, 
but  was  excused  the  journey  by  the  emperor.     Oro- 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  223 

pesa  spent  part  of  the  summer  at  Xarandilla,  where 
he,  his  brother,  and  his  two  sons,  had  the  misfortune 
to  be  attacked  with  fever  all  at  one  time.  The  count 
and  the  other  Toledos  were  frequently  at  Yuste.  Gar- 
cilasso  de  la  Vega,  probably  a  nephew  of  the  poet, 
came  about  the  middle  of  August.  Having  been 
sent  as  ambassador  to  the  holy  see,  on  the  acces- 
sion of  Philip  the  Second,  the  hasty  old  pontiff  ar- 
rested him,  because  of  a  letter  addressed  by  him  to 
the  duke  of  Alba,  and  found,  or  pretended  to  be  found, 
by  Paul  in  the  boot-sole  of  an  intercepted  courier. 
This  outrage  had  been  the  first  signal  for  hostilities. 
The  emperor's  wrath  with  the  Roman  policy  of  Alba 
and  Philip  having  cooled  down,  he  received  Garci- 
lasso  with  much  courtesy,  questioned  him  minutely 
about  Italian  politics  during  two  long  audiences,  lis- 
tened with  great  interest  to  his  relation,  and  after- 
wards said  he  was  greatly  pleased  by  the  envoy's  way 
of  telling  his  story.  He  kept  him  at  Yuste  for  ten 
days,  and  sent  him  to  Valladolid  charged  with  mes- 
sages to  the  queen  of  Hungary,  and  the  task  of  ex- 
plaining her  brother's  reasons  for  desiring  her  return 
to  the  government  of  the  Netherlands.  This  mission 
fulfilled,  he  was  ordered  to  come  back  and  report  the 
queen's  decision.  Don  Pedro  Manrique,  procurator 
to  the  cortes  from  the  city  of  Burgos,  came  on  the 
26th  of  August,  and  was  likewise  graciously  received, 
and  dismissed  with  a  letter  to  the  king,  one  of  the 
latest  which  the  emperor  signed.  The  last  visitor 
who  found  him  in  health  was  the  old  count  of  Uruefia. 
This  grandee  arrived  on  the  night  of  the  26th,  at  ten 
o'clock,  "  with  a  world  of  horses  and  servants,"  for 
whom  Quixada  found  it  very  difficult  to  provide  lodg- 


224  THE    CLOISTER   LIFE    OF 

ing.  The  emperor  received  him  very  kindly,  and  the 
old  noble  took  his  departure  immediately  after  having 
kissed  hands,  —  to  be  allowed  to  perform  that  ceremo- 
ny being,  as  the  chamberlain  noted  with  wonder,  "  his 
sole  business  and  only  request." 

Father  Borja  paid  his  last  visit  to  Yuste  this  sum- 
mer, probably  in  July  or  August.  He  came,  it  is  said, 
at  the  request  of  Charles,  who  desired  the  benefit  of 
his  spiritual  counsels.  It  was,  perhaps,  at  this  time 
that  the  emperor  spoke  to  him  of  the  memoirs  which 
he  had  drawn  up  of  his  journeys  and  campaigns.* 
They  were  not  written,  he  said,  for  the  sake  of  mag- 
nifying his  own  deeds,  but  for  the  sake  of  recording 
the  truth  ;  because  he  had  observed  in  the  histories  of 
his  time,  that  the  authors  erred  as  often  from  igno- 
rance of  the  facts  as  from  prejudice  and  passion. 
But  he  desired  to  know  if  his  friend  thought  that  a 
man's  writing  about  his  own  actions  at  all,  savored 
too  much  of  carnal  vanity.  The  judgment  of  Borja 
on  this  case  of  conscience,  if  it  were  ever  delivered, 
has  not  been  preserved.  Nor  is  the  fate  of  the  me- 
moirs known.  In  a  letter  addressed  to  Philip  the 
Second  by  Ruscelli,  in  1561,  they  were  spoken  of  as 
being  in  preparation  for  the  press,  and  likely  to  be 
soon  given  to  the  World.f  Brantome,  at  a  later  date, 
expressed  an  author's  surprise  that  a  literary  venture 
so  safe  and  so  inviting  had  been  so  long  neglected  by 
the  booksellers.  J  It  is  not  plain,  therefore,  that  Borja 
is  to  be  blamed  for  the  loss,  if  indeed  they  are  lost, 

•  Chap  III.  p.  58. 

t  Published  by  Belle-Forest.     See  Bayle's  Dictionary,  art.  Charles  V. 
X  Brantome  :    Discours  sur  Charles  V.,  CEuvrcs,  8  vols.,  8vo,    Paris, 
1787,  IV.  37. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  225 

of  these  precious  commentaries  of  the  Csesar  of  Cas- 
tilie. 

Charles  neither  felt  nor  affected  that  indifference 
about  his  place  in  history  which  many  remarkable 
men  have  affected,  and  few,  perhaps,  have  felt.  This 
very  year  he  had  given  a  proof  of  the  opposite  senti- 
ment. Florian  de  Ocampo,  his  veteran  chronicler, 
was  still  at  work,  in  his  study  at  Zamora,  on  his  gen- 
eral chronicle  of  Spain.  Anxious  for  the  preservation 
of  the  work,  the  emperor  induced  the  regent  to  ad- 
dress letters  to  the  bishop,  the  dean,  and  the  corregidor 
of  that  city,  requiring  them,  in  the  event  of  the  old 
man's  death,  to  take  possession  of  his  papers,  amount- 
ing to  three  thousand  sheets,  and  to  hold  themselves 
responsible  for  their  safety.*  Similar  steps  were  taken 
to  preserve  the  writings  of  Sepulveda,  on  whom  the 
emperor  had  himself  urged  the  necessity  of  adopting 
such  precautions,  when  he  visited  Yuste  the  year  be- 
fore.f  In  the  work  of  Ocampo,  Charles,  although 
perhaps  he  did  not  know  it,  had  no  personal  interest ; 
for  the  good  canon,  purposing  to  write  the  history  of 
his  patron,  had  begun  his  chronicle  at  Noah's  flood, 

*  Benito  Cano,  in  his  life  of  Ocampo,  prefixed  to  the  fine  edition  of 
the  Cronica,  4to  (Madrid,  1791),  gives  the  end  of  March,  1555,  as  the 
date  of  the  chronicler's  death,  which  date  has  been  adopted  by  Rezabel 
in  his  BiUiot.  de  Escritores  ludividuos  de  los  Colegios  Mayores,  4to  (Madrid, 
1805,  p.  234),  and  by  Mr.  Ticknor  in  his  Hist,  of  Sjmn.  Literature,  I.  p. 
555.  But  Gaztelu,  in  his  letter  in  the  Gonzalez  MS.,  addressed  to  Vaz- 
quez on  the  30th  of  May,  1558,  orders  precautions  to  be  taken  about  the 
cronica^  of  Ocampo,  "in  case  of  the  old  man's  death,"  —  "  si  occurria  su 
Jaltecimiento,  estandoya  tan  viejo"  Another  letter  (9th  of  July)  suggests 
that  the  measures  taken  by  the  regent  respecting  Ocampo's  papers, 
should  also  be  taken  respecting  Sepulveda's,  both  writers  being  so  old. 
Ocampo  must  therefore  have  been  alive  for  some  time  after  May,  1558. 

t  Chap.  VI.  p.  149. 


226 


THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


and  after  some  thirty  or  forty  years'  labor  was  sur- 
prised by  death,  while  narrating  the  exploits  of  the 
Scipios.  Sepulveda  had  more  judiciously  broken 
ground  nearer  Ghent  and  the  last  year  of  the  last  cen- 
tury, and  so  left  his  Latin  history  of  the  emperor  com- 
pleted. The  fruit  of  Charles's  foresight  was  therefore 
found  after  many  days,  —  in  1780,  when  the  work  was 
first  given  to  the  world. 

Borja  might,  perhaps,  have  rejoiced  in  mortifying 
his  own  lust  of  literary  fame,  or  even  in  undergoing 
the  penance  of  historical  slander.  But  he  was  hardly 
capable  of  advising  the  imperial  author  to  put  his 
manuscript  into  one  of  his  Flemish  fireplaces.  In  his 
dealings  with  royalty  the  stern  Jesuit  had  not  quite 
cast  off,  or  on  occasion  he  could  resume,  ways  and 
language  befitting  the  chamberlain's  gold  key.  To 
one  of  the  emperor's  devout  queries  he  replied  in  a 
style  of  courtly  gallantry,  which  sounds  strange  in  the 
mouth  of  father  Francis  the  Sinner,  and  which  would 
have  done  credit  to  some  later  Jesuit,  appointed  to 
labor  in  the  vineyard  of  Versailles.  Narrating  the 
course  of  his  penances  and  prayers,  Charles  asked  him 
whether  he  could  sleep  in  his  clothes ;  "  for  I  must 
confess,"  added  he,  contritely,  "  that  my  infirmities, 
which  prevent  me  from  doing  many  things  of  the 
kind  that  I  would  gladly  do,  render  this  penance  im- 
possible in  my  case."  Borja,  who  practised  every 
kind  of  self-torment,  and  who  in  early  life  had  in  one 
year  fasted  down  a  cubit  of  his  girth,  eluded  the  ques- 
tion by  an  answer  no  less  modest  than  dexterous. 
"  Your  majesty,"  said  he,  "  cannot  sleep  in  your 
clothes,  because  you  have  watched  so  many  nights  in 
your  mail.     Let  us  thank  God  that  you  have  done 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  227 

better  service  by  keeping  those  vigils  in  arms  than 
many  a  cloistered  monk  who  sleeps  in  his  shirt  of 
hair." 

During  his  brief  stay  at  Yuste,  the  Jesuit  won  a 
new  ally  to  his  cause  in  Dona  Magdalena  de  UUoa, 
whose  mind  was  deeply  touched  by  his  pious  walk 
and  conversation.  The  seed  thus  sown  by  the  way- 
side sprang  up  long  afterwards  in  the  substantial 
shape  of  three  colleges  built  and  endowed  for  the 
company  by  that  good  and  devout  lady.  Almost  a 
hundred  years  later,  the  fame  of  the  third  general  of 
Jesus  still  lingered  in  the  Vera.  In  1650,  the  cente- 
narian of  Guijo  used  to  tell  how  he  had  seen  the  em- 
peror, the  count  of  Oropesa,  and  father  Francis,  in  the 
woods  between  that  village  and  Xarandilla,  and  point 
out  a  great  tree  under  which  they  had  made  a  repast, 
of  which  he,  a  loitering  urchin,  had  been  permitted  to 
gather  up  the  crumbs.  But  of  the  individual  aspect 
of  that  remarkable  group  his  memory  had  preserved 
nothing  for  the  third  generation  except  the  dark  robe 
and  the  "  meek  and  penitent  face  of  him  whom  we 
called  the  holy  duke."  * 

•  Cienfuegos :  Vlda  de  F.  Borja,  fol.,  Madrid,  1726,  p.  270. 


228  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE  DEATH  OF  THE   EMPEROR. 

During  the  spring  of  1558,  the  emperor's  health 
recovered  from  its  winter's  decline.  At  the  end  of 
March,  Dr.  Mathys,  in  his  usual  solemn  style,  in- 
formed the  secretary  of  state  that  he  considered  his 
majesty  well  enough  to  leave  off  his  sarsaparilla  and 
liquorice-water.  In  May  he  was  living  as  usual,  and 
eating  voraciously.  His  dinner  began  with  a  large 
dish  of  cherries,  or  of  strawberries,  smothered  in  cream 
and  sugar;  then  came  a  highly-seasoned  pastry;  and 
next  the  principal  dish  of  the  repast,  which  was  fre- 
quently a  ham,  or  some  preparation  of  rashers,  the 
emperor  being  very  fond  of  the  staple  product  of  ba- 
con-curing Estremadura.  "His  majesty,"  said  the 
doctor,  "  considers  himself  in  very  good  health,  and 
will  not  hear  of  changing  his  diet  or  mode  of  living; 
trusting  too  much  to  the  force  of  habit,  and  to  the 
strength  of  his  constitution,  which,  in  bodies  full  of 
bad  humors,  like  his,  frequently  breaks  down  suddenly, 
and  without  warning."  *  His  hands  occasionally 
troubled  him,  and  his  fingers  were  sometimes  ulcer- 
ated. But  his  chief  complaint  was  of  the  heat  and 
itching  in  his  legs  at  night,  which  he  endeavored  to 
relieve  by  sleeping  with  them  uncovered ;  a  measure 

•  Mathys  to  Vazquez,  18th  May,  1558. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  229 

whereby  temporary  ease  was  purchased  at  the  expense 
of  a  chill,  which  crept  into  the  upper  part  of  his  body, 
in  spite  of  blankets  and  eider-down  quilts.  Later  in 
the  summer  he  had  some  threatenings  of  gout,  and 
his  appetite  diminished  so  much,  that  he  sometimes 
lived  for  days  on  bread  and  conserves.  It  is  evident, 
however,  that  Quixada,  an  excellent  judge  of  his  mas- 
ter's symptoms,  not  only  apprehended  no  danger,  but 
considered  that  his  life  might  be  prolonged  for  years; 
else  he  would  never  have  put  himself  to  the  trouble 
and  expense  of  bringing  his  family  down  to  Estrema- 
dura.  On  his  arrival  he  reported  favorably  of  the 
emperor's  health,  spirits,  and  looks.  Yet  Dona  Mag- 
dalena  had  not  been  many  weeks  in  her  new  abode  at 
Quacos,  when  a  bell,  tolling  from  amongst  the  woods 
of  Yuste,  announced  that  she  might  prepare  for  her 
return  to  Villagarcia. 

It  was  not  until  the  9th  of  August  that  the  physi- 
cian became  seriously  alarmed  about  the  state  of  his 
patient.  To  cure  the  uneasy  sensations  in  his  legs  at 
night,  Charles  had  had  recourse  to  cold  bathing,  by 
way  of  a  repellent,  regardless  of  the  remonstrances  of 
Mathys.  "  I  would  rather,"  he  said,  "  have  a  slight 
fever,  than  suffer  this  perpetual  itching."  In  vain  the 
doctor  observed  that  men  were  not  allowed  to  choose 
their  own  maladies,  and  that  some  worse  evil  might 
happen  to  him  if  he  used  so  dangerous  a  remedy. 
The  repellent  system  did  not  answer;  the  patient's 
legs  continuing  to  itch,  and  his  throat  being  choked 
with  phlegm.  Still  he  was  able  to  attend  to  business, 
and  sufficiently  alive  to  minor  matters  to  be  much  an- 
noyed at  a  frost  which  killed  some  melons  of  a  pecu- 
liarly choice  kind,  that  were  ripening  for  his  table. 

20 


230  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

On  the  16th  and  17th  of  August,  he  was  seized  with 
violent  purgings  and  with  pains  in  the  head,  which 
bore  a  suspicious  resemblance  to  gout.  But  as  these 
symptoms  soon  subsided,  he  was  supposed  to  have 
caught  cold  by  sleeping,  as  the  nights  were  getting 
chill,  with  open  doors  and  windows.  Much  illness 
prevailed  in  the  Vera,  and  so  many  of  the  household 
were  on  the  sick  list,  that  Quixada  was  obliged  to  be 
at  the  palace  at  daybreak,  and  did  not  get  home  to 
Quacos  till  nine  in  the  evening.  The  weather  was 
very  changeable  and  trying  to  delicate  frames.  The 
cold  of  the  early  part  and  middle  of  the  month  was 
succeeded  by  terrific  storms  of  wind  and  thunder,  in 
which  twenty-seven  cows  were  struck  dead  by  light- 
ning, as  they  pastured  in  the  forest. 

About  this  tiine,  according  to  the  historian  of  St. 
Jerome,  the  emperor's  thoughts  seemed  to  turn  more 
than  usual  upon  religion  and  its  rites.  Whenever, 
during  his  stay  at  Yuste,  any  of  his  friends,  of  the  de- 
gree of  princes  or  knights  of  the  fleece,  had  died,  he 
had  ever  been  punctual  in  doing  honor  to  their  memo- 
ry, by  causing  their  obsequies  to  be  performed  by  the 
friars ;  and  these  lugubrious  services  may  be  said  to 
have  formed  the  festivals  of  his  gloomy  life  in  the 
cloister.  The  daily  masses  said  for  his  own  soul  were 
always  accompanied  by  others  for  the  souls  of  his 
father,  mother,  and  wife.  But  now  he  ordered  further 
solemnities  of  the  funeral  kind  to  be  performed  in  be- 
half of  these  relations,  each  on  a  different  day,  and  at- 
tended them  himself,  preceded  by  a  page  bearing  a 
taper,  and  joining  in  the  chant,  in  a  very  devout  and 
audible  manner,  out  of  a  tattered  prayer-book. 

These  rites  ended,  he  asked  his  confessor  whether 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  231 

he  might  not  now  perform  his  own  funeral,  and  so  do 
for  himself  what  would  soon  have  to  be  done  for  him 
by  others.  Regla  replied,  that  his  majesty,  please 
God,  might  live  many  years,  and  that  when  his  time 
came  these  services  would  be  gratefully  rendered, 
without  his  taking  any  thought  about  the  matter. 
"  But,"  persisted  Charles,  "  would  it  not  be  good  for 
my  soul?"  The  monk  said  that  certainly  it  would; 
pious  works  done  during  life  being  far  more  effica- 
cious than  when  they  were  postponed  till  after  death. 
Preparations  were  therefore  at  once  set  on  foot;  a 
catafalque  which  had  served  before  on  similar  occaL- 
sions  was  erected ;  and  on  the  following  day,  the 
30th  of  August,  as  the  monkish  historian  relates,  this 
celebrated  service  was  actually  performed.*  The  high 
altar,  the  catafalque,  and  the  whole  church  shone  with 
a  blaze  of  wax-lights ;  the  friars  were  all  in  their  pla- 
ces, at  the  altars,  and  in  the  choir,  and  the  household 
of  the  emperor  attended  in  deep  mourning.  "  The 
pious  monarch  himself  was  there,  attired  in  sable 
weeds,  and  bearing  a  taper,  to  see  himself  interred 
and  to  celebrate  his  own  obsequies."  f  While  the 
mass  for  the  dead  was  sung,  he  came  forward  and 
gave  his  taper  into  the  hands  of  the  officiating  priest, 
in  token  of  his  desire  to  yield  his  soul  into  the  hands 
of  his  Maker.  High  above,  over  the  kneeling  throng 
and  the  gorgeous  vestments,  the  flowers,  the  curling 
incense,  and  the  glittering  altar,  the  same  idea  shone 
forth  in  that  splendid  canvas  whereon  Titiaii  had  pic- 
tured Charles  kneeling  on  the  threshold  of  the  heav- 
enly mansions  prepared  for  the  blessed. 

*  Gonzalez  denies  this,  as  it  seems  to  me,  on  insufficient  grounds, 
which  I  have  discussed  in  the  preface  to  these  chapters, 
f  Siguen<;a,  III.  p.  201. 


232  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

Many  years  before,  self-interment  had  been  prac- 
tised by  a  bishop  of  Liege, — cardinal  Erard  de  la 
Marck,  Charles's  ambassador  to  the  diet  during  his 
election  to  the  imperial  throne;  an  example  which 
may  perhaps  have  led  to  the  ceremonies  at  Yuste. 
For  several  years  before  his  death,  in  1528,  did  this 
prelate  annually  rehearse  his  obsequies  and  follow  his 
coffin  to  the  stately  tomb  which  he  had  reared  in  his 
cathedral  at  Liege.* 

The  funeral  rites  ended,  the  emperor  dined  in  his 
western  alcove.  He  ate  little,  but  he  remained  for  a 
great  part  of  the  afternoon  sitting  in  the  open  air,  and 
basking  in  the  sun,  which,  as  it  descended  to  the  hori- 
zon, beat  strongly  upon  the  white  walls.  Feeling  a  vio- 
lent pain  in  his  head,  he  returned  to  his  chamber  and 
lay  down.  Mathys,  whom  he  had  sent  in  the  morning 
to  Xarandilla  to  attend  the  count  of  Oropesa  in  his 
illness,  found  him,  when  he  returned,  still  suffering 
considerably,  and  attributed  the  pain  to  his  having 
remained  too  long  in  the  hot  sunshine.  Next  morn- 
ing he  was  somewhat  better,  and  was  able  to  get  up 
and  go  to  mass,  but  still  felt  oppressed,  and  com- 
plained much  of  thirst.  He  told  his  confessor,  how- 
ever, that  the  funeral  service  of  the  day  before  had 
done  him  good.  The  sunshine  again  tempted  him 
into  his  open  gallery.  As  he  sat  there,  he  sent  for  a 
portrait  of  the  empress,  and  hung  for  some  time,  lost 
in  thought,  over  the  gentle  face,  which,  with  its  blue 
eyes,  auburn  hair,  and  pensive  beauty,  somewhat  re- 
sembled the  noble  countenance  of  that  other  Isabella, 

*  On  the  tomb  were  these  words :  erardus  a  marka,  mortem 
HABENS  R^  ocuLis  viVEXs  posuiT.  —  Am.  dc  la  Houssaye  :  Memoires 
Hisloriques,  &c.,  2  vols.,  12ino,  Amsterd.,  1722,  p.  186. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  233 

the  great  queen  of  Castille,  He  next  called  for  a  pic- 
ture of  Our  Lord  praying  in  the  garden,  and  then  for 
a  sketch  of  the  Last  Judgment,  by  Titian.  Having 
looked  his  last  upon  the  image  of  the  wife  of  his 
youth,  it  seemed  as  if  he  were  now  bidding  farewell, 
in  the  contemplation  of  these  other  favorite  pictures, 
to  the  noble  art  which  he  had  loved  with  a  love  that 
cares  and  years  and  sickness  could  not  quench,  and 
that  will  ever  be  remembered  with  his  better  fame. 
Thus  occupied,  he  remained  so  long  abstracted  and 
motionless,  that  Mathys,  who  was  on  the  watch, 
thought  it  right  to  awake  him  from  his  reverie.  On 
being  spoken  to,  he  turned  round,  and  complained 
that  he  was  ill.  The  doctor  felt  his  pulse,  and  pro- 
nounced him  in  a  fever.  Again  the  afternoon  sun 
was  shining  over  the  great  walnut-tree,  full  into  the 
gallery.  From  this  pleasant  spot,  filled  with  the  fra- 
grance of  the  garden  and  the  murmur  of  the  fountain, 
and  bright  with  glimpses  of  the  golden  Vera,  they 
carried  him  to  the  gloomy  chamber  of  his  sleepless 
nights,  and  laid  him  on  the  bed  from  which  he  was  to 
rise  no  more. 

The  minute  particulars  of  his  last  illness,  which 
have  been  preserved  by  eyewitnesses,  or  by  persons 
who  had  conversed  with  them,  will  be  most  conven- 
iently grouped  under  the  dates  to  which  they  belong. 
It  was  on  the  31st  of  August  that  the  fever  declared 
itself,  but  after  going  to  bed  that  evening,  his  thirst 
subsided,  and  he  felt  easier. 

September  the  1st.  —  No  great  change  took  place  in 
his  condition.  But  he  was  aware  that  the  hand  of 
death  was  upon  him,  and  wishing  to  finish  his  will,  he 
ordered   that  the  secretary  of  state  should  be  irame- 

20» 


234  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

diately  applied  to  for  a  royal  license  empowering 
Gaztelu  to  act  on  the  occasion  as  a  notary.  Direc- 
tions were  at  the  same  time  given  that  couriers  and 
horses  should  be  kept  in  readiness  along  the  road, 
to  insure  despatch  in  the  communications  between 
Valladolid  and  Yuste. 

September  the  2d.  —  The  emperor  awoke,  com- 
plaining of  violent  thirst,  and  attempted  to  relieve  it 
by  drinking  barley-water  and  sugar.  Quixada  begged 
leave  to  send  for  more  doctors ;  the  patient  said  he 
did  not  like  to  have  many  of  them  about  him  ;  but  he 
at  last  agreed  that  Cornelio  might  be  called  in,  from 
Cigales.  During  the  day  he  dozed  at  intervals,  and 
towards  the  afternoon  his  mind  was  observed  to  wan- 
der; but  in  the  evening  he  had  rallied  sufficiently  to 
confess  and  receive  the  eucharist,  after  which,  at  half 
past  eight,  the  physician  took  from  him  nine  or  ten 
ounces  of  very  black,  bad  blood,  which  afforded  con- 
siderable relief. 

September  the  3d.  —  He  awoke  refreshed,  and  alto- 
gether rather  better.  At  eleven  he  took  some  refresh- 
ment, and  drank  some  wine  and  water,  and  a  little 
beer ;  and  then  he  heard  Gaztelu  read  that  part  of  his 
will  which  related  to  his  household.  In  the  afternoon 
he  was  again  bled  in  the  hand.  This  evening  Quixa- 
da determined  to  pass  the  night  in  the  palace,  which 
he  did  not  again  quit  while  his  master  continued  to 
breathe. 

September  the  4th. —  The  pain  had  left  the  empe- 
ror's head,  but  the  fever  was  still  high.  He  regretted 
that  more  blood  had  not  been  taken  from  him,  feeling 
too  full  of  it ;  an  opinion  from  which  the  doctors  dis- 
sented.    During  the  whole  day  he  was  very  restless. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  235 

He  had  stripped  off  the  jacket,  under-waistcoat,  and 
drawers  which  he  usually  wore  in  bed,  and  lay  toss- 
ing in  his  shirt  under  a  single  silken  coverlet;  and  he 
insisted  on  the  doors  and  windows  of  his  room  being 
kept  open.  He  complained  bitterly  of  thirst,  which 
the  permitted  syrup-vinegar  and  manna  seemed  to 
aggravate  rather  than  allay;  and  the  doctors  were 
obliged  to  allow  him  nine  ounces  of  his  favorite  beer, 
which  he  drank  eagerly,  with  apparent  relief.  Vomit- 
ing and  a  slight  perspiration  followed.  Quixada  was 
looking  anxiously  for  Dr.  Cornelio,  and  had  sent  on 
horses  to  wait  on  the  road  for  his  litter. 

September  the  5th.  —  Dr.  Mathys  administered  to 
the  emperor  a  strong  dose  of  rhuburb  in  three  pills. 
He  felt  so  much  better,  that  he  gave  orders  that  if  the 
post-courier,  who  went  out  every  afternoon  at  four, 
should  meet  Cornelio  before  he  had  accomplished  half 
the  journey,  he  was  to  tell  him  to  go  back.  "  But," 
said  Quixada  in  his  letter,  "  I  shall  take  care  that  he 
does  not  meet  him  at  all,  unless  it  be  very  near  this 
place." 

September  the  6th.  —  The  patient  was  worse  again  ; 
very  feverish  all  day,  and  in  the  afternoon  delirious ; 
but  in  the  evening  he  was  easier,  and  again  sensible. 
An  express  arrived  with  a  notary's  license  for  Gazte- 
lu,  and  letters  from  the  regent  and  the  great  officers 
of  state  full  of  grief  for  the  emperor's  illness.  The 
princess  was  very  anxious  for  leave  to  visit  her  father, 
but  he  would  not  consent  to  it.  In  the  afternoon 
there  was  a  storm,  so  violent,  and  accompanied  with 
such  unusual  darkness,  that  the  post  could  not  be 
despatched. 

September  the  7th.  —  No  change.  The  post  sent 
off  with  a  double  bag. 


236  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OP 

September  the  8th.  —  Dr.  Cornelio  arrived,  and  with 
him  Garciiasso  de  la  Vega.  The  emperor  was  nei- 
ther better  nor  worse;  Dr.  Mathys  stating  the  fact  in 
a  very  long  letter,  which  ended  with  the  remark  that 
the  fever  was  not  in  itself  dangerous,  and  might  even 
prove  beneficial,  but  that,  the  constitution  of  the  pa- 
tient considered,  the  result  must  be  regarded  with 
much  doubt  and  apprehension.  The  sick  man,  how- 
ever, was  sufficiently  easy  and  collected  to  receive 
Garciiasso,  who  had  come  laden  with  a  heap  of  de- 
spatches, which  were  destined  to  remain  unread ;  and 
to  express  the  greatest  satisfaction  at  learning  that 
his  sister,  the  queen  of  Hungary,  had  accepted  the 
government  of  the  Netherlands.  Gaztelu  employed 
the  day  in  drawing  out  in  due  form  a  codicil  to  be 
added  to  the  will.  In  the  afternoon  the  wind  and 
rain  again  roared  round  the  convent,  and  the  post 
was  once  more  detained  by  the  violence  of  the  tem- 
pest. 

September  the  9th.  —  The  emperor  remained  as 
before.  A  new  gloom  overspread  the  household  in 
consequence  of  tidings  from  Africa,  that  Don  Martin 
de  Cordova,  count  of  Alcaudete,  and  the  army  of 
Oran,  had  been  cut  to  pieces  by  the  infidels.  For 
many  years  viceroy  of  the  Spani:<h  dominions  in 
Africa,  and  well  skilled  in  the  ways  of  the  Moors 
both  in  policy  and  war,  the  ill-fated  veteran  was  one 
of  the  most  trusted  counsellors  of  the  crown.  During 
the  spring  and  summer,  the  fortunes  of  a  war  between 
Hassan,  pacha  of  Algiers,  son  and  heir  of  Barbarossa, 
and  Halif,  the  new  king  of  Fez,  gave  him  hopes 
of  turning  Moslem  quarrels  to  Christian  advantage. 
Mostagan,  a  fortified  town  about  twelve  leagues  to 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  237 

the  east  of  Oran,  was  a  prize  upon  which  his  hopes 
had  been  long  fixed.  About  the  middle  of  August, 
therefore,  at  the  head  of  six  thousand  four  hundred 
men,  and  a  considerable  train  of  artillery,  he  marched 
thither,  sending  along  the  coast  nine  brigantines  laden 
with  munitions,  and  relying  on  promises  of  further 
aid  from  the  king  of  Fez.  But  the  expedition,  which 
ought  to  have  been  a  surprise,  was  ruined  by  the  un- 
due caution  of  its  approach.  The  convoy  was  cap- 
tured by  an  Algerine  fleet;  the  Moorish  ally  proved 
faithless ;  the  attack  on  Mostagan  failed ;  and  in  their 
hasty  retreat  the  weary,  thirsty,  and  famished  Chris- 
tians were  overtaken  by  the  army  of  Hassan.  At 
Mazagran  the  old  count,  who  had  completely  lost  his 
head,  was  trampled  to  death  in  the  gateway  by  his 
own  terrified  troops,  and  the  greater  part  of  his  army 
fell  beneath  the  Turkish  scymitar  and  the  Arab  spear, 
or  was  sent  to  row  in  the  galleys  of  Algiers.  His  son, 
Don  Martin  de  Cordova,  was  taken  prisoner,  and  only  a 
handful  of  fugitives  escaped  to  tell  their  tale  of  disaster 
at  Oran.  "With  Alcaudete,  who  had  been  looked  upon 
as  a  leader  no  less  prudent  than  brave,  fell  many 
knights  and  nobles  of  Andalusia  ;  and  the  fate  of  his 
expedition  caused  such  mourning  as  had  been  un- 
known in  Spain  since  the  fatal  day  when  that  other 
Cordova,  the  good  knight  of  Aguilar,  fell  with  his 
gallant  band  in  the  pass  of  the  Red  Sierra.*  Quixada 
and  Garcilasso,  friends  of  many  of  the  victims,  were 


*  L.  de  Marmol  Carvajal :  Descripcion  de  Africa,  3  torn  ,  fol.,  Granada, 
1573-99,  II.  pp.  197  -  199.  Fr.  Diego  de  Haedo  :  Uistoria  de  Arpel,  fol., 
Valladolid,  1612,  p.  174.  Don  Martin  de  Cordova  was  ransomed,  and 
lived  to  be  governor  of  Oran,  and  to  revenge  his  father.  A.  Lopez  de 
Haro:  Nobilario  de  Espana,  2  torn.,  fol ,  Madrid,  1622,  II.  153. 


238 


THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


greatly  astonished  that  a  commander  of  so  much  ex- 
perience should  have  put  any  trust  in  the  Punic 
promises  of  a  Moor.  They  did  not  venture  to  break 
the  news  to  the  emperor,  knowing  how  keenly  he 
would  feel  the  reverse  suffered  by  bis  son  in  the  land 
of  his  own  glory  and  misfortune.*  He  therefore  went 
to  the  grave  unconscious  of  the  calamity  which  had 
befallen  Spain.  No  visible  change  had  taken  place  in 
his  condition ;  but  he  was  able  to  hear  the  codicil  of 
his  will  read,  and  to  sign  and  seal  it. 

Charles  had  made  his  will  on  the  6th  of  June,  1554, 
at  Bruxelles.  The  codicil,  from  its  great  length,  its 
minuteness,  and  the  frequent  recurrence  of  provisions 
to  be  observed  in  case  he  died  before  he  should  see 
his  son,  there  being  now  no  hope  of  such  a  meeting, 
appears  to  have  been  prepared  some  time  before.  But 
as  it  was  read  to  him  ere  his  trembling  hand  affixed 
the  last  stamp  of  his  authority,  it  remains  as  a  proof 
that  one  of  his  latest  acts  wfis  to  charge  Philip,  by  his 
love  and  allegiance,  and  by  his  hope  of  salvation,  "  to 
take  care  that  the  heretics  were  repressed  and  chas- 
tised with  all  publicity  and  rigor,  as  their  faults  de- 
served, without  respect  of  persons,  and  without  regard 
to  any  plea  in  their  favor."  The  rest  of  the  paper  is 
filled  with  directions  for  his  interment,  and  with  a  list 
of  legacies  to  forty -eight  servants,  and  many  thought- 
ful arrangements  for  the  comfort  of  those  who  had 
followed  him  from  Flanders.  Although  willing  to 
send  all  his  Protestant  subjects  to  martyrdom,  he 
watched  with  fatherly  kindness  over  the  fortunes  of 
grooms  and  scullions.     It  is  said  that  Fray  Juan  de 

•  Chap.  ni.  p.  80. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  239 

Regla  proposed  that  Don  John  of  Austria  should  be 
named  in  the  will  as  next  heir  to  the  crown,  failing 
the  emperor's  grandchildren  ;  but  if  this  incredible  ad- 
vice were  given  by  the  confessor,  the  dying  man  had 
energy  enough  left  to  reject  it  with  indignation.* 

September  the  10th. —  He  was  somewhat  easier, 
although  very  weak,  and  able  to  take  no  nourishment, 
except  a  few  spoonfuls  of  mutton-broth.  He  once 
more  received  the  eucharist,  and  confessed  with  great 
devoutness.  Garcilasso  was  admitted  to  his  bedside 
to  take  leave,  and  again  was  assured  of  the  relief  he 
felt  in  knowing  that  the  Netherlands  were  to  be  gov- 
erned by  queen  Mary.  Gaztelu  wrote  that  it  was  his 
majesty's  particular  desire  that  a  safe-conduct  should 
be  immediately  prepared  for  Dr.  Cornelio  and  ten  or 
twelve  persons,  who  were  to  go  to  Flanders,  but  that 
it  was  to  be  kept  secret  for  the  present  from  the  queen, 
for  good  and  sufficient  reasons.  Quixada,  in  his  let- 
ter to  Vazquez,  said  that  it  would  be  well  that  orders 
should  be  sent  to  him  for  his  guidance,  in  case  it 
should  please  God  to  make  the  sickness  of  his  majesty 
mortal. 

September  the  11th. —  A  crisis  in  the  fever  had 
been  looked  for  on  this  day ;  and  the  doctors  were  of 
opinion  that  it  was  changing  into  what  they  called  a 
double  tertian.  Don  Luis  de  'Avila  came,  and  re- 
mained at  Quacos. 

September  the  12th.  —  The  patient  had  passed  a 
better  night,  and  was  able  to  take  some  food;  and 
hopes  of  a  recovery  began  to  be  entertained. 

»  Salazar  dc  Mendoqa  {Dign.  de  Costilla,  fol.  161)  says  that  Kegia 
nsed  to  tell  the  srorv  himself. 


240  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

September  the  13th.  —  These  hopes  faded.  He 
was  decidedly  worse.  Nothing  would  remain  on  his 
stomach,  and  his  weakness,  and  the  state  of  his  pulse, 
greatly  alarmed  the  two  physicians.  His  throat  was 
.constantly  choked  with  phlegm,  which,  being  too  fee- 
ble to  expectorate,  he  endeavored  to  remove  with  his 
finger.  Letters  from  the  regent  and  the  queen  of 
Hungary  continued  to  express  their  wish  to  go  to 
Yuste.  Quixada,  writing  in  reply,  said  that  his  maj- 
esty had  always,  since  the  beginning  of  his  illness, 
been  averse  to  this  proposal,  and  that,  when  he  himself 
spoke  of  it  again  to-day,  the  emperor  shook  his  head, 
as  if  to  say  no.  Had  his  majesty  been  equal  to  any 
exertion,  he  would  have  also  ventured  to  remind  him 
that  he  ought  formally  to  thank  the  queen  for  consent- 
ing to  return  to  Flanders,  knowing,  as  he  did,  how 
glad  and  how  grateful  he  had  been  on  receiving  the 
intelligence.  But  in  truth  he  was  unfit,  not  only  to 
write,  but  even  to  dictate  a  letter,  or  to  attend  to  any 
business  whatsoever.  If  the  archbishop  of  Toledo, 
therefore,  was  on  the  road  to  Yuste,  he  need  not  hurry 
himself.  When  he  arrived,  he  must  lodge  either  at  a 
Dominican  monastery,  about  a  league  off,  or  at  Qua- 
cos;  as  no  stranger  could  be  put  up  at  Yuste  without 
the  express  orders  of  his  majesty. 

September  the  15th.  —  Rhubarb  pills  had  been 
again  administered  with  good  effect,  and  hope  is  not 
yet  extinguished.  "  But,"  adds  Quixada,  "  you  can 
hardly  imagine  how  weak  his  majesty  is.  We  all  of 
us  do  our  best  to  anticipate  his  wants ;  and  if  our 
blood  would  do  him  good,  we  would  give  it  most  joy- 
fully." 

September  the  16th.  —  The  doctors  considered  him 


THE   EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  241 

in  a  slight  degree  better.  Avila,  on  the  other  hand, 
thought  him  hanging  between  life  and.  death.  A 
courier  came  from  Lisbon  with  letters  from  the  queen 
of  Portugal,  and  to  carry  back  news  of  the  emperor's 
health.  Catherine  was  aware  of  the  dangerous  state 
of  her  brother,  and  she  had  given  great  alms  for  the 
benefit  of  his  soul,  and  had  ordered  masses  to  be  said 
for  him  in  every  church  in  the  kingdom.  , 

September  the  17th. —  Mathys  wrote  that  the  em- 
peror had  been  seized  with  ague  fits,  the  cold  fits 
lasting  much  longer  than  the  hot;  that  he  vomited 
frequently  and  violently,  "  after  which  his  majesty  lies 
unable  to  speak  or  move,  and  does  not  even  ask  for 
water  to  wash  his  mouth."  Gaztelu  informed  the 
secretary  of  state  that  he  was  no  better ;  and  that  cer- 
tain moneys  had  arrived  from  Seville.  Quixada 
wrote,  not  only  to  Vazquez,  but  to  the  regent  and  to 
the  king.  In  each  of  the  letters  he  said  that  the  doc- 
tors now  entertained  little  hope,  and  that  the  empe- 
ror's state  was  truly  deplorable.  To  the  king  he  gave 
a  brief  sketch  of  the  codicil  which  had  been  added  to 
the  will.  "  The  emperor,"  he  wrote,  "  having  once  ex- 
pressed a  desire  to  be  buried  here,  and  that  the  em- 
press should  be  brought  from  Granada  to  be  laid  be- 
side him,  I  ventured  to  observe  that  this  house  was 
not  of  sufficient  quality  to  be  made  the  resting-place 
of  so  great  sovereigns ;  upon  which  he  said  he  would 
leave  the  matter  in  the  hands  of  your  majesty."  The 
chamberlain  concluded  by  assuring  the  king  that  in 
the  matter  he  knew  of —  perhaps  alluding  to  Don 
John  —  he  would  use  every  precaution  in  the  world 
until  his  majesty  came  to  Spain. 

September  the  18th. —  The  emperor,  wrote  Mathys, 

21 


242  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

touched  nothing  to-day  but  a  little  chicken-broth,  and 
some  watered  wine ;  the  phlegm  in  his  throat  was 
very  troublesome.  Quixada  said  that  he  had  not 
spoken  a  word  for  twenty-two  hours ;  and  Avila  gave 
it  as  his  opinion  that  he  was  certainly  worse,  what- 
ever the  doctors  might  say. 

September  the  19th. —  Mathys  announced  that  the 
h^ot  and  cold  fits  continued  with  great  violence,  and 
that  his  pulse  was  getting  feebler  and  feebler.  Dr. 
Cornelio  had  been  ill  and  feverish  all  yesterday,  and 
w^as  no  better  to-day.  At  eight  in  the  evening, 
Quixada  wrote  that  a  servant  of  the  archbishop  of 
Toledo  was  just  come,  to  say  that  the  primate  might 
be  looked  for  immediately ;  but  it  was  now  of  no  con- 
sequence when  he  arrived,  as  all  hope  of  the  emperor 
being  able  to  attend  to  business  was  past.  Called  to 
the  sick-room,  the  writer  laid  his  pen  down,  and  re- 
sumed it  in  three  quarters  of  an  hour.  He  wrote 
thus  :  "  The  doctors  say  the  fever  rises  and  his  strength 
sinks.  Ever  since  noon,  I  have  been  keeping  them 
from  giving  him  extreme  unction.  They  have  been 
with  me  again  to  say  it  is  time,  but  I  have  sent  them 
to  feel  his  pulse  once  more ;  and  I  will  not  allow  the 
thing  to  be  done  until  the  necessity  for  it  is  quite 
plain.  Thrice  have  they  thus  tried  to  bury  him,  as  it 
were,  and  it  goes  to  my  very  soul  to  see  it."  The 
course  of  the  pen  was  once  more  checked.  "  I  had 
written  thus  far,  when  the  doctors  came,  and  urged 
me  to  make  haste.  We  have  therefore  given  his  maj- 
esty extreme  unction.  It  seemed  to  me  premature, 
but  I  yielded  to  the  opinion  of  those  who  ought  to 
know  best.  You  will  understand  how  I,  who  have 
served  him  thirty-seven  years,  feel  at  seeing  him  thus 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH. 


243 


going.  May  God  take  him  to  heaven  !  But  I  say 
again,  that,  to  my  thinking,  the  end  will  not  be  to- 
night. God  be  with  him,  and  with  us  all !  The  cere- 
mony is  just  now  over,  nine  at  night,  Monday,  Sep- 
tember the  19th." 

There  were  two  forms  of  administering  this  crown- 
ing rite,  a  longer  form  for  churchmen  and  a  briefer 
one  for  the  laity.  At  the  request  of  the  prior,  the  em- 
peror was  asked,  by  Quixada,  which  of  the  two  he 
preferred,  and  he  chose  to  be  treated  in  the  ecclesias- 
tical fashion.  This  involved  the  reading  of  the  seven 
penitential  psalms,  a  litany,  and  several  passages  of 
Scripture;  through  all  of  which  the  emperor  made 
the  proper  responses  in  an  audible  voice.  After  the 
service  was  over,  he  appeared  rather  revived  than  ex- 
hausted by  it. 

September  the  20th. —  During  the  whole  of  the 
past  night  he  had  been  attended  by  his  confessor,  and 
by  the  preacher  Villalva,  who  frequently  read  aloud, 
at  his  request,  passages  from  Scripture, —  usually  from 
the  Psalms.  The  psalm  which  he  liked  best  was  that 
beginning  Do/nine  !  refng-ium  facium  est  nobis*  Soon 
after  daybreak,  he  signified  his  wish  to  be  left  alone 
with  his  chamberlain.  When  the  door  was  shut  upon 
the  retiring  clergy,  he  said:  "Luis  Quixada,  I  feel 
that  I  am  sinking  little  by  little,  for  which  I  thank 
God,  since  it  is  his  will.  Tell  the  king,  my  son,  that 
I  beg  he  will  settle  with  my  servants  who  have  at- 
tended me  to  my  death ;  that  he  will  find  some  em- 
ployment for  William  Van  Male ;  and  that  he  will 
forbid  the  mars  of  this  convent  to  receive  guests  in  the 

•  "  Lord!  thou  bast  been  our  refuge."  —  Psalm  xc.  of  our  version. 


244  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

house."  He  then  expressed  his  great  regret  at  not 
being  able  to  confer  with  the  archbishop  of  Toledo, 
about  the  affair  between  the  king  and  queen  of  Bo- 
hemia ;  and  said  he  had  intended  to  have  sent  an  en- 
voy to  convey  his  opinion  of  the  matter  to  Maximilian, 
but  had  waited  until  he  should  have  heard  the  pri- 
mate's story.  "  As  for  what  he  told  me  to  say  of 
myself,"  said  Quixada,  in  writing  to  Philip  the  Sec- 
ond, "  I  do  not  repeat  it,  being  so  nearly  concerned  in 
it;  and  other  things  I  will  also  leave  untold  until  it 
pleases  God  to  bring  your  majesty  hither."  The  em- 
peror afterwards  asked  for  the  eucharist.  Fray  Juan 
de  Regla  reminded  him  that,  after  having  received  ex- 
treme unction,  that  sacrament  was  no  longer  neces- 
sary. "  It  may  not  be  necessary,"  said  the  dying  man, 
"but  it  is  good  company  on  so  long  a  journey." 
About  seven  in  the  morning,  therefore,  the  consecrated 
wafer  was  brought  from  the  high  altar  of  the  church, 
followed  by  the  friars  in  solemn  procession.  The  pa- 
tient received  it,  with  great  devoutness,  from  the  hands 
of  his  confessor;  but  he  had  great  difficulty  in  swal- 
lowing the  sacred  morsel,  and  afterwards  opened  his 
mouth,  and  made  Quixada  see  if  it  had  all  gone  down. 
In  spite  of  his  extreme  weakness,  he  followed  all  the 
responses  as  usual,  and  repeated,  with  much  fervor, 
the  whole  verse.  In  manus  tuas,  Domine  I  commendo 
spiritum  meum ;  redimisLi  nos,  Domine  !  Dens  verila- 
tis ;*  and  he  afterwards  remained  kneeling  in  his  bed 
for  some  time,  and  uttering  ejaculations  in  praise  of 
the  blessed  sacrament,  so  pious  and  so  aoposite  that 

*  Into  thy  hands,  O  Lord,  I  commend  my  spirit ;  tboa  hast  redeemed 
OS,  0  Lord  God  of  truth. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  245 

the  friars  conceived  them  to  be  prompted  by  the  Holy 
Ghost.  He  was  soon,  however,  seized  with  violent 
vomitings;  and,  during  the  greater  part  of  the  day, 
lay  motionless,  with  closed  eyes,  but  not  unconscious 
of  what  went  on  around  him. 

About  noon  the  archbishop  arrived,  and  was  imme- 
diately admitted  to  the  sick-room,  where  he  was  rec- 
ognized by  the  patient,  who  addressed  a  few  words 
to  him,  and  told  him  to  go  and  repose  himself.  The 
count  of  Oropesa  and  his  brother,  Don  Francisco, 
also  came,  although  they  were  themselves  hardly  re- 
covered from  their  illness.  In  the  afternoon  it  was 
supposd  that  the  emperor's  strength  was  ebbing  fast, 
and  all  his  friends  assembled  at  the  palace.  They 
found  him  perfectly  calm  and  collected,  for  which  he 
expressed  great  thankfulness,  it  having  long  been  his 
dread  that  he  might  die  out  of  his  mind.  A  few  words 
of  consolation,  touching  forgiveness  of  sins,  were  at 
intervals  addressed  to  him  by  the  archbishop,  words 
which  Regla  treasured  up  and  reported  to  the  Inqui- 
sition. Sad  and  swarthy  of  visage,  Carranza  had 
also  a  hoarse,  disagreeable  voice.  Hearing  it  on  one 
of  these  occasions,  the  emperor  gave  a  sign  of  impa- 
tience so  unmistakable,  that  Quixada  thought  it 
right  to  interpose,  and  whisper,  "  Hush,  my  lord,  you 
are  disturbing  his  majesty."  The  primate  took  the 
hint,  and  was  silent. 

Towards  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening,  Charles  asked 
if  the  consecrated  tapers  were  ready ;  and  he  was  evi- 
dently sinking  rapidly.  The  physicians  acknowledged 
that  the  case  was  past  their  skill,  and  that  all  hope 
was  over.  Cornelio  retired;  Mathys  remained  by  the 
bedside,  occasionally  feeling  the  patient's  pulse,  and 

21* 


243 


THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


whispering  to  the  group  of  anxious  spectators,  "  His 
majesty  has  but  two  hours  to  live, —  but  one  hour, — 
but  half  an  hour,"  Charles  meanwhile  lay  in  a  stu- 
por, seemingly  unconscious,  but  now  and  then  mur- 
muring a  prayer  and  turning  his  eyes  to  heaven.  At 
length  he  raised  himsr-lf,  and  called  for  "  William." 
Van  Male  was  instantly  at  his  side,  and  understood 
that  he  wished  to  be  turned  in  bed,  during  which  op- 
eration the  emperor  leaned  upon  him  heavily,  and  ut- 
tered a  groan  of  agony.  The  physician  now  looked 
towards  the  door,  and  said  to  the  archbishop,  who 
was  standing  in  its  shadow,  '■'■  Domine^jam  moriturl" 
"  My  lord,  he  is  now  dying !"  The  primate  came  for- 
ward with  the  chaplain  Villalva,  to  whom  he  made  a 
sign  to  speak.  It  was  now  nearly  two  o'clock  in  the 
morning  of  the  21st  of  September,  St.  Matthew's  day. 
Addressing  the  dying  man,  the  favorite  preacher  told 
him  how  blessed  a  privilege  he  enjoyed  in  having  been 
born  on  the  feast  of  St.  Matthias  the  apostle,  who  had 
been  chosen  by  lot  to  complete  the  number  of  the 
twelve,  and  in  being  about  to  die  on  the  feast  of  St. 
Matthew,  who  for  Christ's  sake  had  forsaken  wealth, 
as  his  majesty  had  forsaken  imperial  power.  For 
some  time  the  preacher  held  forth  in  this  pious  and 
edifying  strain.  At  last  the  emperor  interposed,  say- 
ing, "  The  time  is  come  :  bring  me  the  candles  and 
the  crucifix."  These  were  cherished  relics,  which  he 
had  long  kept  in  reserve  for  this  supreme  hour.  The 
one  was  a  taper  from  Our  Lady's  shrine  at  Monster- 
rate,  the  other,  a  crucifix  of  beautiful  workmanship, 
which  had  been  taken  from  the  dead  hand  of  his  wife 
at  Toledo,  and  which  afterwards  comforted  the  last 
moments  of  his  son    at   the  Escorial.     He  received 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  247 

them  eagerly  from  the  archbishop,  and  taking  one  in 
each  hand,  for  some  moments  he  silently  contemplated 
the  figure  of  the  Saviour,  and  then  clasped  it  to  his 
bosom.  Those  who  stood  nearest  to  the  bed  now 
heard  him  say  quickly,  as  if  replying  to  a  call,  "  Ya, 
voj/,  Senor"  —  "  Now,  Lord,  I  go."  As  his  strength 
failed,  his  fingers  relaxed  their  hold  of  the  crucifix, 
which  the  primate  therefore  took,  and  held  it  up  before 
him.  A  few  moments  of  death-wrestle  between  soul 
and  body  followed  ;  after  which,  with  his  eyes  fixed  on 
the  cross,  and  with  a  voice  loud  enough  to  be  heard 
outfide  the  room,  he  cried,  "  At/,  Jesus  I "  and  expired. 
The  clock  had  just  struck  two.  In  or  near  the 
chamber  of  death  were  assembled  the  prior,  the  chap- 
lains, and  Fray  Pedro  de  Sotomayer;  Quixada  and 
Gaztelu,  and  the  two  physicians;  the  count  of  Orope- 
sa,  his  brother  Don  Francisco,  and  his  uncle,  Don 
Diego,  abbot  of  Cabanas ;  Don  Luis  de  Avila,  and 
archbishop  Carranza.  Don  John  of  Austria,  in  his 
quality  of  page  to  Quixada,  is  likewise  supposed  to 
have  witnessed  the  end  of  him  whom  he  was  after- 
wards so  proud  to  call  (Bis  sire.  The  count,  the  pri- 
mate, the  grand  commander,  the  doctor,  the  secretary, 
and  the  chamberlain  immediately  retired  to  write  let- 
ters to  Valladolid.  All  agreed  that  the  behaviour  of 
the  emperor  on  his  death-bed  had  been  most  pious  and 
edifying.  Avila  recorded  with  pride  that  his  master 
had  given  him  a  look  of  recognition  just  before  the 
final  struggle.  Quixada  said  he  had  died  as  devoutly 
as  the  queen  of  France,  and  in  a  manner  worthy  of 
the  "  greatest  man  that  ever  had  lived,  or  ever  would 
live,  in  the  world."  * 

*  "  El  hombre  mas  principal  que  jamas  ay  o  habria."     Qaixada  to 


248  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

On  the  day  of  the  emperor's  death,  his  body  was 
washed,  anointed,  and  embalmed.  A  messenger 
was  sent  to  PJasencia  for  two  hundred  yards  of  black 
cloth  for  hangings  for  the  church ;  and  that  day  and 
the  next  were  spent  in  making  other  preparations  for 
the  funeral.  On  the  23d  of  September,  the  licentiate 
Murga,  of  Quacos,  being  disabled  by  illness,  the  cor- 
regidor  of  Plasencia,  Don  Pedro  Osorio  Zapata,  ar- 
rived, and  in  his  presence  the  will  was  read,  and  a 
certificate  of  the  death  properly  drawn  up  and  signed. 
The  body,  in  a  lead  coffin,  inclosed  in  a  massive  outer 
case  of  chestnut-wood,  and  covered  with  a  black  vel- 
vet pall,  was  then  lowered  through  the  bedroom  win- 
dow into  the  church,  and  placed  on  a  canopied  cata- 
falque in  front  of  the  high  altar.f  The  funeral  ser- 
vices lasted  for  three  days,  and  the  monks  of  three 
neighboring  convents  swelled  the  company  of  mourn- 
ers, and  the  solemn  dirges  for  the  dead.  Each  day 
mass  was  said  by  the  primate,  assisted  by  the  prior  as 

the  king :  Gonzalez  MS.  A  few  particulars  of  the  death-bed  scene  I 
have  gleaned  from  a  letter,  written  on  ^e  27th  of  September,  1558,  by 
one  of  the  monks  of  Yuste,  which  forms^art  of  the  Collecion  de  Dociimen- 
tos  Inedilos  para  la  Historia  de  Espana,  par  D.  Martin  Fernandez  de  Na- 
varete,  D.  Miguel  de  Salva,  y  Don  Pedro  Sanz  de  Baranda,  8  vols.,  4to, 
Madrid,  1842-6,  VI.  p.  667.  The  names  both  of  the  receiver  and  of 
the  writer  are  unknown ;  but  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  letter  pro- 
ceeded from  the  pen  of  Fray  Hernando  Corral ;  see  Chap.  IV.  p.  89. 

t  Sandoval  (II.  p.  835)  says  that  these  preparations  had  been  hardly 
made,  when  the  corregidor  of  Plasencia  arrived,  with  his  clerks  and  con- 
stables, and,  in  spite  of  the  friars'  remonstrances,  opened  the  coffin,  in 
order  to  identify  the  body.  This  story,  so  improbable  in  itself,  would 
not  be  worth  mentioning  but  for  the  fact,  that  Sandoval  professes  to  have 
been  guided,  in  his  account  of  the  emperor  at  Yuste,  by  a  paper  drawn 
up  by  the  prior.  But  as  it  is  contradicted  by  the  evidence  of  the  Gonza- 
lez MS.,  and  not  mentioned  by  Siguen^a,  I  have  rejected  it. 

Another  better  known  fable  seems  to  be  indebted  for  general  circaia- 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  249 

deacon,  and  the  prior  of  Granada  as  sub-deacon.  A 
funeral  sermon  was  preached  on  the  first  day,  by  the 
eloquent  Villalva,  who  had  found  an  (x;casion  worthy 
of  all  his  powers.  By  desire  of  Quixada,  the  orator 
had  kept  notes,  day  by  day,  of  what  occurred  at  the 
imperial  death-bed;*  and  these  he  now  wrought  into 
a  discourse  so  impassioned,  that  some  of  the  hearers 
declared  that  it  made  their  flesh  creep  and  their  hair 
stand  on  end.  Sermons  were  also  pronounced  on  the 
second  day,  by  Fray  Luis  de  San  Gregorio,  prior  of 
Granada,  and  on  the  third,  by  Fray  Francisco  de  An- 
gulo,  prior  of  Sta.  Engracia,  at  Zaragoza.  The  im- 
perial dust  was  then  mingled  with  the  common  earth. 
"  Let  my  sepulture,"  said  the  will  of  Charles,  "  be  so 
ordered,  that  the  lower  half  of  my  body  lie  beneath, 
and  the  upper  half  before,  the  high  altar,  that  the 
priest  who  says  mass  may  tread  upon  my  head  and 
my  breast."  But  the  clergy  present  being  divided  in 
opinion  as  to  the  lawfulness  of  placing  under  the  high 
altar  a  corpse  not  in  the  odor  of  sanctity,  the  matter 


tion  to  Dr.  Salazar  de  ]\Iendo^a.  In  his  DIgnidades  de  Castilla,  p.  158, 
he  tells  us  that  Charles,  five  years  before  his  death,  had  caused  his  cof- 
fin to  be  made,  with  a  winding-sheet,  and  other  furniture  of  the  tomb, 
and  kept  them  in  his  bedroom,  and  looked  at  them  nightly  before  retir- 
ing to  rest.  People  who  saw  the  box  thought  it  must  be  filled  with  treas- 
ures, or  important  papers  ;  and  when  asked  about  it,  the  emperor  would 
smile,  and  say  it  did  contain  something  which  he  valued  very  highlj'. 
Salazar,  a  Spaniard,  cites  as  his  authority  a  Frenchman,  Pierre  Gregoire 
of  Thoulouse,  who  tells  the  story  at  great  length  in  his  work  De  Repxtb- 
llca,  2  torn.,  fol.,  Lugduni,  1609,  Lib.  VI.  Cap  III.  Sect.  8,  Tom.  I.  p. 
139,  and  says  he  found  it  "  in  oratione  funebri  ejus  (Caroli  V.)  Sueuca," 
—  a  source  which  I  have  been  unable  to  discover.  Sandoval  had  heard 
it,  but  did  not  believe  it. 

*  Los   Santos :  Hist,  de  la  Orden  de  S.  Geronimo,  quarta  parte,  fol., 
Madrid,  1680,  p.  516. 


250  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

was  compromised  by  laying  the  coffin  in  a  cavity  made 
in  the  wall  behind,  so  that  it  encroached  on  a  very 
small  portion  of  the  holy  ground. 

So  ended  the  car-^er  of  Charles  the  Fifth,  the  great- 
est monarch  of  the  memorable  sixteenth  century.  The 
vast  extent  of  his  dominions  in  Europe,  the  wealth  of 
his  Transatlantic  empire,  the  sagacity  of  his  mind,  and 
the  energy  of  his  character,  combined  to  render  him 
the  most  famous  of  the  successors  of  Charlemagne. 
Preeminently  the  man  of  his  time,  his  name  is  seldom 
wanting  to  any  monument  of  the  age.  He  stood  be- 
tween the  days  of  chivalry,  which  were  going  out,  and 
the  days  of  printing,  which  were  coming  in;  respect- 
ing the  traditions  of  the  one,  and  fulfilling  many  of 
the  requirements  of  the  other.  Men  of  the  sword 
found  him  a  bold  cavalier;  and  those  whose  weapons 
were  their  tongues  or  their  pens,  soon  learned  to  re- 
spect him  as  an  astute  and  consummate  politician. 
Like  his  ancestors,  Don  Jayme,  or  Don  Sancho,  with 
laiice  in  rest,  and  shouting  Santiago  for  Spain!  he 
led  his  knights  against  the  Moorish  host,  among  the 
olives  of  Goleta ;  and  even  in  his  last  campaign  in 
Saxony,  the  cream-colored  genet  of  the  emperor  was 
ever  in  the  van  of  battle,  like  the  famous  piebald 
charger  of  Turenne  in  later  fields  of  the  Palatinate. 
Some  historians  have  contrasted  Charles  with  his 
more  showy  and  perhaps  more  amiable  rival,  Francis 
the  First,  making  the  two  monarchs  the  impersona- 
tions of  opposite  qualities  and  ideas ;  the  emperor  of 
state  craft  and  cunning,  the  king  of  soldiership  and 
gallantry.  Francis  was,  no  doubt,  oftener  to  be  seen 
glittering  in  armor,  and  adorning  the  pageants  of  roy- 
alty and  war ;  but  Charles  was  oftener  in  the  trench 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  251 

and  the  field,  scenes  for  which  alone  he  cared  to  don 
his  battered  mail  and  shabby  accoutrements.  His 
journey  across  France,  in  order  to  repress  the  revolt 
of  Ghent,  was  a  finer  example  of  daring,  of  a  great 
danger  deliberately  braved  for  a  great  purpose,  than 
is  to  be  found  in  the  story  of  the  gay  champion  of  the 
field  of  gold.  In  the  council-chamber  he  was  ready 
to  measure  minds  with  all  comers  ;  with  the  Northern 
envoy  who  claimed  liberty  of  conscience  for  the  Prot- 
estant princes  ;  with  the  magnifico  who  excused  the 
perfidies  of  Venice  ;  or  the  still  subtler  priest,  who 
stood  forth  in  red  stockings  to  gloze  in  defence  of  the 
still  greater  iniquities  of  the  holy  see.  In  the  prose- 
cution of  his  plans,  and  the  maintenance  of  his  influ- 
ence, Charles  shrank  from  no  labor  of  mind,  or  fa- 
tigue of  body.  When  other  sovereigns  v/ould  have 
sent  an  ambassador,  and  opened  a  negotiation,  he 
paid  a  visit,  and  concluded  a  treaty.  From  Gron- 
ij^en  to  Otranto,  from  Vienna  to  Cadiz,  no  unjust 
steward  of  the  house  of  Austria  could  be  sure  that  his 
misdeeds  would  escape  detection  on  the  spot  from 
the  keen,  cold  eye  of  the  indefatigable  emperor. 
The  name  of  Charles  is  connected,  not  only  with  the 
wars  and  politics,  but  with  the  peaceful  arts,  of  his 
time  :  it  is  linked  with  the  graver  of  the  Vico,  the 
chisel  of  Leoni,  the  pencil  of  Titian,  and  the  lyre  of 
Ariosto ;  and  as  a  lover  and  patron  of  art,  his  fame 
stood  as  high  at  Venice  and  Nuremberg  as  at  Ant- 
werp and  Toledo. 

The  admiration  which  was  raised  by  the  great 
events  of  his  reign,  was  sustained  to  the  last  by  the 
unwonted  manner  of  its  close.  In  our  days,  abdica- 
tion has  been  so  frequently  the  refuge  of  weak  men, 


252  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

fallen  in  evil  times,  or  the  last  shift  of  baffled  bad  men, 
that  it  is  difficult  for  u§  to  conceive  the  sensation  which 
must  have  been  produced  by  the  retirement  of  Charles. 
England  is  among  the  few  nations  of  Europe  to  whose 
thrones  there  are  no  pretenders  expiating  in  exile 
the  sins  of  themselves  and  their  sires ;  perhaps  the 
sole  nation  whose  royal  house  has  no  member  who 
has  put  off,  or  has  declined  to  put  on,  the  hereditary 
crown.  Now  that  the  divinity  which  doth  hedge  a 
king  has  become  a  bowing  wall  and  a  tottering  fence, 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  look  upon  the  solemn  cere- 
mony which  was  enacted  at  Bruxelles  with  the  feeling 
or  the  eyes  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  act  of  the 
emperor  was  a  thing  not  indeed  altogether  unheard 
of,  but  known  only  in  books  and  distant  times.  The 
knights  of  the  fleece,  who  wept  on  the  dais,  around 
their  Caesar,  knew  little  more  about  Diocletian  than 
was  known  by  the  farmers  and  clothiers  who  elbowed 
each  other  in  the  crowd  below.  It  was  only  soD|e 
rare  student  who  remembered  that  a  Theodosius  and 
an  Isaac  had  submitted  their  heads  to  the  razor,  to 
save  their  necks  from  the  axe  or  the  bowstring;  that 
a  Lothaire  had  led  a  hermit's  life  in  the  forest  of  Ar- 
dennes ;  that  a  Carloman  had  milked  the  ewes  of  the 
Benedictines  at  Monte  Cassino.  Spanish  history 
afforded  several  examples  of  abdications,  but  they 
belonged  to  the  misty  ages  of  the  Goth,  and  the  Cas- 
tillian  who  was  in  the  habit  of  alluding  to  very  re- 
mote antiquity  as  "the  days  of  king  Wamba,"  per- 
haps seldom  knew  that  the  example  set  by  that  mar- 
tial monarch  had  been  followed  by  Bermudo,  and 
Alonso,  and  Ramiro,  when  they,  in  their  turns,  ex- 
changed the  diadem  for  the  cowl.    The  act  of  Charles, 


THE    EMPEROR   CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  253 

therefore,  was  fitted  to  strike  the  imagination  of  men, 
by  the  novelty  of  the  occasion,  by  the  solemnity  of 
the  circumstances,  by  the  splendor  of  the  abdicated 
crowns,  and  by  the  world-wide  fame  with  which  they 
had  been  won. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  emperor  gave  the 
true  reasons  of  his  retirement  when,  panting  for 
breath,  and  unable  to  stand  alone,  he  told  the  states 
of  Flanders  that  he  resigned  the  government  because 
it  was  a  burden  which  his  shattered  frame  could  no 
longer  bear.  He  was  fulfilling  the  plan  which  he 
had  cherished  for  nearly  twenty  years.  Indeed,  he 
seems  to  have  determined  to  abdicate  almost  at  the 
time  when  he  determined  to  reign.  So  powerful  a 
mind  as  that  of  Charles,  has  seldom  been  so  tardy  in 
giving  evidence  of  power.  Until  he  appeared  in 
Italy,  in  1529,  the  thirtieth  year  of  his  age,  his  strong 
will  had  been  as  wax  in  the  hands  of  other  men.  Up 
to  that  time,  the  most  laborious,  reserved,  and  inflexi- 
ble of  princes  was  the  most  docile  subject  of  his  min- 
isters. His  mind  ripened  slowly,  and  his  body  de- 
cayed prematurely.  By  nature  and  hereditary  habit 
a  keen  sportsman,  in  his  youth  he  was  unwearied  in 
tracking  the  bear  and  the  wolf  over  the  hills  of  Tole- 
do and  Granada ;  and  he  was  distinguished  for  his 
prowess  against  the  bull  and  the  boar.*  Yet  ere  he 
had  turned  fifty,  he  was  reduced  to  amuse  himself  by 
shooting  crows  and  daws  amongst  the  trees  of  his 
garden.  The  hand  which  had  yielded  the  lance,  and 
curbed  the  charger,  was  so  enfeebled  with  gout,  that 

*  Lihro  de  la  Monteria :  Discurso  de  G.  Argote  de  Molina,  p.  6.  Ranke's 
Ottoman  and  Spanish  Empires,  trsiixsl&ted\h J  Kelly,  8vo,  London,  1843, 
p.  30. 

22 


254  THE    CLOISTER   LIFE    OF     • 

it  was  sometimes  unable  to  break  the  seal  of  a  letter. 
Declining  fortune  combined  with  decaying  health  to 
maintain  him  in  that  general  vexation  of  spirit  which 
he  shared  with  king  Solomon.     His  later  schemes  of 
policy  and  conquest  ended  in  nothing  but  disaster  and 
disgrace.     The  pope,  the  Turk,  the  king  of  France, 
and  the  Protestant  princes  of  the  empire,  were  once 
more  arrayed  against  the  potentate,  who,  in  the  bright 
morning  of  his  career,  had  imposed  laws  upon  them 
all.      The  flight  from  Innsbruck  avenged  the  cause 
which  seemed  lost  at  Muhlberg.     While  the  doctors 
of  the  church   assembled  at  Trent,   in   that  council 
which  had  cost  so  much  treasure  and  intrigue,  con- 
tinued their  solemn  quibblings,  the  Protestant  faith 
was  spreading  itself  even  in  the  dominions  of  the  or- 
thodox house  of   Hapsburg.       The  emperor's  well- 
known  device,  the  pillars  of  Hercules,  with  the  proud 
motto.  Plus  ultra,  for  which  the  inventor  had  been 
rewarded  with  two  mitres,*  became  the  butt  of  the 
pedantic  wits    of   Franqe.       Guise    and  the   gallant 
townsmen  of  Metz,  furnished  a  new   reading,    Non 
ultra  metas,  for  the  motto  ;f  and  Paris  was  made 
merry  with  the  suggestion  that  the  pillars  should  be 
changed  into  a  crab,  and  the  words  into  Plus  citra,^ 
to   express  the   ebb  of  the  imperial  fortunes.      The 
finances  both  of  Spain  and  the  other  dominions  of 

*  Luis  Marliano,  author  of  this  famous  device,  was  paid  for  his  inge- 
nuity, first  with  the  bishopric  of  Tuy  (sorely  against  the  will  of  cardinal 
Ximenes  ;  Alv.  Gomez:  De  Rebus  Gestis,  fol.  151),  and  afterwards  with 
that  of  Ciudad  Rodrigo.  Rod.  Mendez  Silva  :  Caialago  Real,  4to, 
Madrid,  1656,  fol.  136. 

t  Le  Moyne  :  De  I' Art  des  Devises,  4to,  Paris,  1666,  p.  215. 

fStrada:  De  Bello  Belgico,JAh.  I.,  2  torn.,  sm.  8vo,  Antwerp,  1640, 
I.  17. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  255 

Austria  were  in  the  utmost  disorder  ;  and  the  lord  of 
Mexico  and  Peru  had  been  forced  to  beg  a  loan  from 
the  duke  of  Florence.  It  is  no  wonder,  therefore,  that 
Charles  seized  the  first  gleam  of  sunshine  and  return- 
ing calm  to  make  for  the  long-desired  haven  of  ref- 
uge ;  that  he  relieved  his  brow  of  its  thorny  crowns 
as  soon  as  he  had  obtained  an  object  dear  to  him  as  a 
father,  a  politician,  and  a  devotee,  by  placing  his  son 
Philip  on  the  rival  throne  of  the  heretic  Tudors. 

His  habits  and  turn  of  mind  made  a  religious  house 
the  natural  place  of  his  retreat.    Like  a  true  Castillian, 

"  With  age,  with  cares,  with  maladies  opprest, 
He  sought  the  refuge  of  conventual  rest." 

Monachism  had  for  him  the  charm,  vague  yet  power- 
ful, such  as  soldiership  has  for  the  young  ;  and  he  was 
ever  fond  of  catching  glimpses  of  the  life  which  he 
had  resolved,  sooner  or  later,  to  embrace.  When  the 
empress  died,  he  retired  to  indulge  his  grief  in  the 
cloisters  of  La  Sisla,  near  Toledo.  After  his  return 
from  one  of  his  African  campaigns,  he  paid  a  visit  to 
the  noble  convent  of  Mejorado,  near  Olmedo,  and 
spent  two  days  in  familiar  converse  with  Jeromites, 
sharing  their  refectory  fare,  and  walking  for  hours  in 
their  garden  alleys  of  venerable  cypress.  When  he 
held  his  court  at  Bruxelles,  he  was  often  a  guest  at  the 
convent  of  Groenendael ;  and  the  monks  commemo- 
rated his  condescension  as  a  monarch  as  well  as  his 
skill  as  a  marksman,  by  placing  his  statue  in  bronze 
on  the  banks  of  their  fishpond,  at  a  point  where  he  had 
brought  down  a  heron  from  an  amazing  height.  At 
Alcalaj  when  attending  service  in  the  university 
church,  he  would  not  occupy  the  throne  prepared  for 
him,  but  insisted  on  sitting  with  the  canons,  saying 


256  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

that  he  never  could  be  better  placed  than  among  rev- 
erend and  learned  divines.* 

These  church  predilections,  colored  with  religious 
melancholy,  Charles  inherited  from  his  ancestors  on 
both  sides  of  the  house,  and  transmitted  to  his  de- 
scendants. Ferdinand  the  Catholic  was  not  free  from 
them  ;  and  the  emperor  Maximilian  was  said  to  have 
entertained,  in  his  latter  days,  the  notable  design  of 
taking  orders  and  getting  himself  chosen  pope.  Philip 
the  Second  was  preeminently  the  friend  of  friars :  in 
his  wretched  cell  adjoining  the  church  of  the  Escorial 
he  lived  a  life  of  the  severest  asceticism  ;  and,  ever  reck- 
less of  the  blood  of  his  people,  he  was  often  to  be 
seen  on  his  knees,  reverently  dusting  and  polishing 
the  golden  reliquaries  in  which  he  had  enshrined  the 
bones  of  his  saints.  Don  John  of  Austria,  when  sick- 
ening of  deferred  hope  of  a  throne,  instinctively  turned 
his  thoughts  to  the  cowl  and  a  celestial  crown.  Philip 
the  Third  never  missed  visiting  a  convent  when  the 
opportunity  occurred  ;  they  long  remembered,  at  Mont- 
serrate,  the  devotion  with  which  he  clambered  to  every 
rock-hewn  cell  of  that  romantic  hermit-warren ;  and 
when  the  third  part  of  Siguen^a's  Jeromite  history 
appeared,  he  sat  up  a  whole  night  to  read  the  fascinat- 
ing folio.f  Even  the  licentious  Philip  the  Fourth 
and  the  half-idiot  Charles  the  Second  were  careful 
to  send  the  best  buck  or  the  best  boar  from  their  day's 
heap  of  game  to  the  prior  of  the  Escorial ;  and,  in 
the  true  spirit  of  their  grandsire  of  Yuste,  they  used 

*  Alf.    Sanctii :    De  Rebus   HispanicB    anacephaleosis,  4to,   Compluti, 
1634,  p.  327. 

t  Porretio :    Hechos  y  Dlchos  de  Felipe    III.,    4to,    Madrid,     1723, 
pp.  332-334. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  257 

to  descend  into  the  pantheon  of  their  palace-convent, 
and  muse  upon  death  amongst  the  ashes  of  their 
ancestors. 

Nor  were  the  princesses  of  the  Spanish  house  of 
Austria  untinged  with  the  religious  melancholy  of  their 
race.  Like  queen  Juana,  many  of  them  ended  their 
days  in  the  cloister  ;  and  a  few  even  took  the  veil  and 
wore  the  ring  of  lady  abbess.  Amongst  these  were 
the  regent  Juana  and  her  sister,  the  empress  Mary, 
with  her  daughter  the  archduchess  Margaret,  who  re- 
fused the  hand  of  her  uncle,  Philip  the  Second,  and, 
as  sister  Margaret  of  the  Cross,  was  famous  for  near 
half  a  century  among  the  vestals  of  Madrid.  The 
infanta  Isabella,  the  able  ruler  of  the  Netherlands,  at 
the  death  of  her  husband  took  the  habit,  though  not 
the  vows,  of  a  Franciscan  nun,  as  the  habit  which 
had  been  worn  with  so  much  holy  distinction  by  ladies 
of  her  name  and  lineage,  the  Isabellas  of  Hungary 
and  of  Portugal.*  The  married  life  of  queen  Mar- 
garet, wife  of  Philip  the  Third,  was  divided  between 
childbed  and  church.f  Paris,  with  its  pageantries 
and  the  new  pleasures  of  bridehood  and  a  throne, 
could  not  dispel  the  constitutional  gloom  from  the 
young  heart  of  Maria  Teresa.  "  What  did  you  think 
of  your  reception  ?  "  asked  Anne  of  Austria,  on  the 
evening  of  her  arrival  at  the  Louvre.  "  I  thought," 
replied  the  queen  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  "  of  that 
other  pageant  which   shall   one  day  carry  me  to  the 


*  C.  de  Benavente :    Advertencias    para  Reyes,  4to,   Madrid,    1643 
pp.  228,  229. 

t  See  her  life,  Vida  y  Muerte  de  Dona  Margarita  de  Austria,  por  Diego 
de  Guzman,  4to,  Madrid,  1617. 
22" 


258  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

tomb."*  The  influence  of  Spanish  blood  may  be 
seen  in  the  declining  years  of  Louis  himself,  and  in 
the  strange  story  of  the  devout  Bourbon,  who  wore 
the  family  honors  of  Orleans  between  the  profligate 
regent  and  the  infamous  Egalite. 

To  the  last,  Charles  loved  his  woodland  nest  at 
Yuste.  It  has  been  said  that  he  was  wont  to  declare 
that  he  had  enjoyed  there  more  real  happiness  in  one 
day  than  he  had  derived  from  all  his  triumphs,!  an 
extravagant  assertion,  which  is  nevertheless  far  nearer 
the  truth  than  the  idle  tale  that  his  retirement  was  a 
long  repentance  of  his  abdication.  But  the  cloister, 
like  the  world,  was  not  without  its  disappointments. 
He  had  escaped  only  from  the  pageantry  of  courts,  not 
from  the  toil  and  excitement  of  public  affairs.  To 
Yuste  he  had  come,  seeking  solitude  and  repose ;  but 
although  his  chamberlain  complained  bitterly  that  he 
had  indeed  found  the  one,  his  own  long  and  labored 
despatches  prove  that  he  enjoyed  but  little  of  the  other. 
He  began  by  attempting  to  confine  his  attention  to  a 
few  matters  in  which  he  was  specially  interested,  and 
which  he  hoped  ere  long  to  bring  to  a  happy  termina- 
tion ;  but  the  circle  gradually  widened,  and  at  last  his 
anxious  eye  learned  once  more  to  sweep  the  whole 
horizon  of  Spanish  policy.  From  the  war  in  Flan- 
ders he  would  turn  to  the  diplomacy  of  Italy  or  Por- 
tugal ;  and  his  plans  for  replenishing  the  treasury  at 
Valladolid,  were  followed  by  remarks  on  the  garrisons 
in  Africa,  or  the  signal-towers  along  the  Spanish 
shore.     He  watched  the  course  of  the  vessel  of  state 

*  Fr.  Juan  B.  de  Soria :  Historia  de  Dona  Mffria  Teresa  de  Austria^ 
Reina  de  Francia,  sm.  8vo,  Madrid,  1684,  p.  11. 

t  Phil.  Camerarii  Meditationes  Historicoe,  3  torn.,  4to,  Francofurti, 
1C02-9,  I.  p.  210. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  259 

with  interest  as  keen  as  if  the  helm  were  still  in  his 
own  hands ;  and  the  successes  and  the  disasters  of  his 
son  affected  him  as  if  they  were  his  own.  Unfortu- 
nately, in  1557  and  1558,  the  disasters  greatly  out- 
numbered and  outweighed  the  successes.  On  one 
side  of  the  account  stood  the  brilliant  but  barren  vic- 
tory of  St.  Quentin,  and  the  less  signal  but  better 
employed  victory  of  Gravelines;  on  the  other,  there 
were  the  bullion  riots  at  Seville,  the  disgraceful  treaty 
of  Rome,  the  loss  of  Calais  and  of  Thionville,  the 
sack  of  Menorca,  and  the  outburst  of  heresy.  He 
might  well  dread  the  arrival  of  each  courier  ;  and  the 
destruction  of  the  army  of  Oran  was  announced  in 
the  despatches  which  lay  unread  on  his  table  at  the 
time  of  his  death. 

The  prudence  and  moderation  which  generally 
guided  his  acts  in  the  world  dictated  his  writings  at 
Yuste.  Notwithstanding  his  displeasure  with  the 
Roman  negotiations  of  Alba  and  the  loss  of  Calais 
and  Thionville,  which  he  expressed  freely  enough  in 
conversation,  few  traces  of  ruffled  temper  are  to  be 
found  in  his  written  remarks  on  these  subjects.  It 
was  this  caution  and  self-control  which  saved  his 
reign  from  many  of  those  disorders  and  scandals 
which  disgraced  the  rule  of  his  successors.  The 
three  Philips  were  governed  by  favorites  and  viziers, 
minions  of  fortune,  who  in  time  became  her  martyrs. 
The  ministers  of  Charles  neither  rose  so  high  nor  fell 
so  low ;  he  never  had  a  Perez,  a  Lerma,  an  Olivares, 
or  a  Calderon. 

Perhaps  the  very  qualities  which  rendered  the  de- 
spatches of  the  emperor  so  admirable  as  state  papers, 
at  the  dates  which  they  bore,  and  in  the  hands  to 


260  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

which  they  were  addressed,  tend  to  diminish  their 
value  as  materials  for  his  biography.  A  close  rea- 
soner,  careful  in  analyzing  facts,  and  subtle  in  pene- 
trating motives,  Charles  was  nevertheless  one  of  the 
most  tiresome  writers  who  ever  drove  the  quill  of  po- 
litical or  diplomatic  correspondence.  Heavy  and  re- 
dundant in  style,  his  pictures  of  men  and  events  are 
flat  and  colorless ;  and  even  in  argument,  his  vivacity 
is  cramped  and  crippled  by  the  fence  of  caution  and 
reserve  which  ever  hedges  his  path.  Very  rarely 
does  it  happen  that  any  spark  of  human  feeling  or 
passion  illumines  his  weary  records  of  the  daily  toils 
of  power;  of  hopes  and  fears,  to  which  a  generous 
heart  can  seldom  respond ;  of  selfish  intrigues  and  ig- 
noble rivalries ;  and  of  all  the  dusty  plans  of  an  ambi- 
tion which  never  soared  above  the  family  tree  of 
Hapsburg.        , 

In  the  cloister,  Charles  was  no  less  popular  than  he 
had  been  in  the  world.  In  spite  of  his  feeble  health 
and  phlegmatic  temperament,  in  spite  of  his  caution, 
which  was  ever  suspicious,  and  his  selfishness,  which 
frequently  made  him  false ;  in  spite  of  his  jealous  love 
of  power,  and  of  his  contempt  for  popular  rights, 
there  was  still  in  his  conduct  and  bearing  that  inde- 
scribable charm  which  wins  the  favor  of  the  multi- 
tude. A  little  book,  of  no  literary  value,  but  frequent- 
ly printed  both  in  French  and  Flemish,  sufficiently 
indicates  in  its  title  the  qualities  which  colored  the 
popular  view  of  his  character.  The  Life  and  Actions^ 
Heroic  and  Pleasant,  of  the  Invincible  Emperor,  Charles 
the  Fifth,  was  long  a  favorite  chap-book  in  the  Low 
Countries.  It  relates  how  he  defeated  Solyman  the 
Magnificent,  and  how  he  permitted  a  Walloon  boor 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES   THE    FIFTH.  261 

to  obtain  judgment  against  liim  for  the  value  of  a 
sheep,  killed  by  the  wheels  of  his  coach  ;  how  he  rode 
down  the  Moorish  horsemen  at  Tunis ;  and  how  he 
jested,  like  any  private  sportsman,  with  the  woodmen 
of  Soigne.  A  similar  reputation  for  affability  and 
good  humor,  heightened  by  the  added  quality  of  sanc- 
tity, he  left  behind  him  in  the  sylvan  monastery  of 
Estremadura.  Doomed  by  royal  etiquette  to  eat 
alone,  he  sometimes  broke  through  the  rule  in  favor 
of  St.  Benedict  or  St.  Jerome.  Dining  in  former 
years  with  the  fathers  of  Montserrate,  the  prior,  a 
rough  Aragonese,  ventured  to  tell  him  that  he  had 
polluted  their  sober  board  by  eating  flesh-meat  there, 
a  monkish  pleasantry  which  the  imperial  guest  won 
the  hearts  of  his  hosts  by  taking  in  perfectly  -good 
part.*  At  Yuste  he  occasionally  dined  in  the  refec- 
tory, improving  the  conventual  cheer  by  the  good  hu- 
mor of  his  conversation  no  less  than  by  the  science  of 
his  cook. 

In  one  point  alone  did  Charles  in  the  cell  differ 
widely  from  Charles  on  the  throne.  In  the  world, 
fanaticism  had  not  been  one  of  his  vices ;  he  feared 
the  keys  no  more  than  his  cousin  of  England,  and  he 
confronted  the  successor  of  St.  Peter  no  less  boldly 
than  he  made  head  against  the  heir  of  St.  Louis. 
While  he  held  Clement  the  Seventh  prisoner  at 
Rome,  he  permitted  even  at  Madrid  the  mockery  of 
masses  for  that  pontiff's  speedy  deliverance.  Against 
the  Protestants  he  fought  rather  as  rebels  than  as 
heretics,  and  he  frequently  stayed  the  hand  of  the  vic- 

*  Vida  que  d  Emperador  tuvo  en  d  Convento  de  Yuste:  in  the  MS.  en- 
titled El  Perfedo  Desengano  por  el  Marques  de  Valparaiso,  1638,  of 
which  I  have  given  an  account  in  my  preface. 


262  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OP 

torious  zealots  of  the  church.  At  Wittenberg  he  set 
a  fine  example  of  moderation,  in  forbidding  the  de- 
struction of  the  tomb  of  Luther,  saying  that  he  con- 
tended with  the  living  and  not  with  the  dead.*  To 
a  Venetian  envoy,  accredited  to  him  at  Bruxelles,  in 
the  last  year  of  his  reign,  he  appeared  free  from  all 
taint  of  polemical  madness,  and  willing  that  subjects 
of  theology  should  be  discussed  in  his  presence,  with 
fair  philosophical  freedom.f 

But  once  within  the  walls  of  Yuste,  he  assumed  all 
the  passions,  prejudices,  and  superstitions  of  a  friar. 
Looking  back  on  his  past  life,  he  thanked  God  for  the 
evil  that  he  had  been  permitted  to  do  in  the  matter  of 
religious  persecution,  and  repented  him,  in  sackcloth 
and  ashes,  for  having  kept  his  plighted  word  to  a  her- 
etic. Religion  was  the  enchanted  ground  whereon 
his  strong  will  was  paralyzed  and  his  keen  intellect 
fell  grovelling  in  the  dust.  Protestant  and  philosophic 
historians  love  to  relate  how  Charles,  finding  that  no 
two  of  his  timepieces  could  be  made  to  go  alike,  re- 
marked that  he  had  perhaps  erred  in  spending  so 
much  blood  and  treasure  in  the  hope  of  compelling 
men  to  a  yet  more  impossible  uniformity  in  the  more 
difficult  matters  of  religion.  The  antithesis  of  some 
declaimer  on  toleration,  passing  from  pen  to  pen,  has 
at  last  been  placed  by  a  Sleidan  or  a  Jovius,  more 
careless  or  unscrupulous  than  their  fellows,  as  an 
aphorism  in  the  mouth  of  the  emperor  himself,  against 
whom  it  was  probably,  in  the  first  instance,  launched.  J 

*  Juncker:   J^da  Mart.  Luteri,  sm.  8vo,   Francofurti.    1699,  p.   219. 
Sleidan:  De  Statu  Relic/,  et  lieip..  Lib.  XIX.,  is  cited  as  his  authority, 
t  Relatione  of  Badovaro. 
X  I  have  sought  in  vain  for  the  inventor  of  this  pojiular  fiction,  of 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  263 

It  would  have  been  well  for  his  own  fame,  well,  per- 
haps, for  the  moral  and  intellectual  progress  of  Spain, 
had  such  a  sentiment  been  found  in  the  table-talk  of 
the  Spanish  Diocletian.  But  it  is  certain  that  the 
philosophy  of 

"him  who  walked 
In  the  Salonian  garden's  noble  shade," 

was  unknown,  or  unapproved,  at  Yuste,  in  the  clois- 
ter of  the  Jeromite  or  in  the  cabinet  of  the  imperial 
recluse. 

While  Charles  lived  and  died  at  Yuste,  no  less  than 
two  aspiring  pens  were  at  work  upon  epic  poems  to 
commemorate  his  reign.  Sempere,  a  merchant  of 
Valencia,  was  first  in  the  field,  in  1560,  with  his 
Carolea,  of  which  the  thirty  printed  cantos  bring  the 
hero's  history  down  only  to  his  coronation  at  Bologna. 
The  huge  and  worthless  fragment  was  never  com- 
pleted.* In  1568,  Luis  Capata,  a  soldier,  published, 
likewise  at  Valencia,  his  Carlo  Famoso,  in  fifty  can- 
tos, to  which  he  had  given  the  labor  of  thirteen  years. 
He,  too,  commenced  his  rhymed  annals  —  for  the 
poem  was  nothing  more  —  on  a  scale  so  colossal,  that 
he  was  compelled  to  compress  into  the  final  canto  the 
last  twelve  years  of  his  hero's  life.     From  this  wilder- 

which  I  can  find  no  trace  in  books  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Strada, 
De  Bella  Bely.,  Lib.  I.  p.  13,  speaking  of  the  emperor's  love  of  watch- 
making and  watches,  adds,  "  quorum  videlicit  rotas  multo  quam  fortunae 
facilius  temperabat "  ;  a  remark  which  was  kindly  pointed  out  to  me  by 
Mr.  Macaulay,  as  the  possible  germ  of  the  story.  It  is  told  in  its  present 
shape,  as  a  well-known  anecdote,  in  Harris's  Description  of  the  Gardens  of 
Loo.  4to,  London,  1699,  pp.  70-72,  the  earliest  book  in  which  I  have  met 
with  it.  Hume  relates  it  in  his  History  of  Queen  Mary  Tudor,  whence  it 
■was  probably  transplanted,  without  question,  by  Robertson,  who,  having 
the  will  and  codicil  of  Charles  before  him  in  Sandoval,  ought  to  have 
rejected  it  on  internal  evidence. 

*  Ticknor's  Hist,  of  Spanish  Literature,  II.  p.  456. 


264  THE    CLOISTER   LIFE    OF 

ness  of  justly  neglected  verse  I  venture  to  select  these 
stanzas,  as  a  fair  specimen  of  the  poem  and  of  the 
admiration  with  which  the  retirement  of  Charles  was 
regarded. 

"  Y  el  emperador,  que  antes  no  solia 
Caber  en  todo  el  mundo  de  aposento, 
En  Yuste,  en  nuestra  EspaHa  un  abadia, 
Se  recogio  Ji  la  fin  a  un  aposento  : 

Y  alii  (puesto  en  el  ciel  un  pie)  bivia, 
Mas  qn'en  su  cielo  Jupiter  contento, 
En  religion  sin  habito  bivicndo 

A  quantos  havia  monges  excediendo. 

"  Otros  se  ban  del  imperio  descargado, 
Mas  que  no  de  virtud  de  miedo  lleno, 
Qu'en  la  una  mano  vian  el  hierro  ayrado, 

Y  en  el  otra  el  vaso  oculto  de  veneno ; 
Imitando  al  castor,  y  aun  tan  loado 

Lcs  fue,  que  de  su  fama  hoy  dura  el  trueno, 
Mas  el  dexo  un  imperio,  6  caso  duro, 
Glorioso,  dulce,  en  paz,  quieto  y  seguro. 

"  Carlo  que  como  cisne  su  fin  siente 
Al  nino  Don  Juan  de  Austria  ante  si  llama, 

Y  le  dize  quien  es,  y  de  alii  ausente 

Se  le  encomienda  al  rey  que  tanto  el  ama : 

Y  hecho  lo  que  un  rey  tan  exccllcnte 
En  tal  tiempo  devia,  como  una  llama 
Que  le  falta  ya  al  fin  el  nutrimiento 

Se  fue  agozar  de  Dios  a  su  alto  assierto."  * 


"  So  Charles  the  emperor,  whose  mighty  reign 
The  globe  itself  scarce  held  within  its  bound, 
At  Yuste,  a  fair  abbey  of  our  Spain, 
A  lowly  home  and  quiet  haven  found : 
Here,  half  his  heart  in  heaven,  did  he  remain, 
Tranquil  as  Jove  with  sovran  glories  crown'd  ; 
In  all  things  save  the  hood  a  holy  friar, 
In  Christian  graces  peerless  in  the  choir. 

Carlo  Famoso  de  Don  Luys  Capata,  4to,  Valencia,  1566,  fol.  287. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  265 

"  Kings  erst  have  left  their  sceptred  state  and  sway, 
Pale  terror  prompting,  not  calm  strength  of  soul ; 
riash'd,  in  their  dreams,  the  falchion's  dreadful  raj, 
Lurk'd,  in  their  fears,  the  drug  within  the  bowl  j 
(So  beavers,  hunted,  cast  their  spoils  awaj,) 
Yet  fame's  loud  tongues  the  noble  deed  extol : 
But  greater  Charles,  with  glory  all  his  own, 
Resign'd  a  peacffal,  sure,  and  splendid  throne. 

"  His  end  at  last  foreknowing,  like  the  swan, 
The  emperor  to  his  side  bids  quickly  bring 
The  opening  Austrian  flower,  his  young  Don  John  ; 
Reveals  his  birth  ;  and  to  the  absent  king 
Commends  in  loving  wise  this  other  son  ; 
Then,  sooth 'd  with  holy  rites,  his  soul  takes  wing, 
With  fitful  flickering  like  a  lamp  that  dies, 
To  God's  high  seat  and  bliss  beyond  the  skies." 

The  statement  with  regard  to  Don  John  is,  perhaps, 
not  wholly  to  be  relied  upon ;  nor  is  it  to  be  wholly 
rejected.  Capata  wrote  while  the  events  were  fresh 
in  men's  memories ;  in  his  dedication  to  the  king  he 
challenged  comparison  for  accuracy  with  any  prose 
historian  ;  and  he  professed  to  mark  with  an  asterisk 
every  passage  in  which  he  had  ventured  to  embellish 
fact  with  fiction.  No  asterisk  throws  a  doubt  upon 
the  incident  above  recorded.  By  the  letters  written 
from  Yuste,  it  is  neither  confirmed  nor  discredited. 
Quixada,  De  Bues,  Bodart,  and  Philip  the  Second 
seem  to  have  been  the  only  persons  in  the  secret ;  but 
during  the  life  of  the  emperor,  the  chamberlain  never 
alluded  to  it  in  his  correspondence  with  the  king ;  and 
even  after  his  master's  death  he  mentioned  it,  as  the 
next  chapter  will  show,  very  cautiously,  very  briefly, 
and  with  evident  reluctance. 

23 


266  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 


CHAPTER    X. 


FINAL  NOTICES  OF  THE   COURT  AND  MONASTERY 
OF  YUSTE. 

Charles  the  Fifth  ctid  not  leave  the  world  without 
some  of  those  portents  in  which  his  age  loved  to  trace 
the  influence  of  a  remarkable  death  upon  the  opera- 
tions of  external  nature,  A  comet  appeared  over 
Yuste  at  the  beginning  of  his  last  illness,  and  was  last 
seen  in  the  night  on  which  he  died.  In  the  spring,  a 
lily  in  his  garden,  growing  beneath  his  windows,  bore 
two  buds,  of  which  one  flowered  and  faded  in  due 
course,  but  the  other  remained  a  bud  through  the* 
summer  and  autumn,  to  the  great  astonishment  of  the 
gardeners  and  the  friars.  But  on  the  night  of  the 
20th  of  September  it  burst  into  full  bloom,  as  an  em- 
blem of  the  whiteness  of  the  parting  spirit,  and  of  the 
sure  and  certain  hope  of  its  reception  into  the  man- 
sions of  bliss.  Reverently  gathered  in  the  morning, 
this  wondrous  lily  was  fastened  upon  the  black  veil 
which  covered  the  sacramental  shrine  in  the  convent- 
ual church,  and  remained  there  until  it  dropped  off 
from  decay.  In  the  week  following  the  obsequies,  a 
pied  bird,  large  as  a  vulture,  but  of  a  kind  unknown 
in  the  Vera,  perched  at  night  on  the  roof  of  the  church, 
exactly  over  the  imperial  grave,  and  disturbed  the 
friars  by  barking  like  a  dog.  For  five  successive 
nights  it  barked  there  in  the  clear  moonlight,  always 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  267 

at  the  same  hour,  and  always  arriving  from  the  east 
and  flying  away  towards  the  west.  And  four  years 
later,  a  holy  capuchin  of  the  new  world.  Fray  Gon- 
qalo  Mendez,  as  he  knelt  in  his  convent  chapel  at 
Guatemala,  was  blessed  with  a  vision  wherein  he 
saw  the  emperor  before  the  judgment-seat  of  our 
Lord,  making  his  defence  against  the  accusing  de- 
mons, and  with  so  much  success  that  he  received 
honorable  acquittal,  and  was  in  the  end  borne  off  to 
heaven  by  the  angels  of  light.  ^^ 

The  codicil  of  the  will  of  Charles,  the  only  part  of 
the  document  which  properly  belongs  to  his  life  at 
Yuste,  is  drawn  up  with  a  minuteness  of  detail  very 
characteristic  of  the  careful  habits  of  the  man.  After 
a  profession  of  attachment  to  the  church,  and  hatred 
of  heresy,  and  after  the  directions  for  his  burial,  which 
have  been  already  noticed,  he  proceeds  to  describe  a 
monument  and  altar-piece  which  he  wished  to  be 
erected  in  the  church  of  the  convent,  in  the  event  of 
Yuste  being  chosen  by  his  son  for  the  final  resting- 
place  for  his  bones.  The  altar-piece  was  to  be  of  al- 
abaster, a  copy  in  relief  of  Titian's  picture  of  the 
Last  Judgment,  the  picture  on  which  he  was  gazing 
at  the  moment  when  he  felt  the  first  touch  of  death. 
A  custodia,  or  sacramental  tabernacle,  was  likewise 
to  be  made  of  alabaster  and  marble,  and  placed  be- 
tween statues  of  the  empress  and  himself.  These 
effigies  were  to  be  sculptured  kneeling,  with  hands 
clasped  as  if  in  prayer,  barefoot,  and  with  uncovered 
heads,  and  clad  in  sheets  like  penitents.  For  further 
particulars  he  referred  the  Iv^ng  to  Luis  Quixada  and 
the  confessor  Regla,  who  were  fully  instructed  in  his 
meaning  and  wishes.     In  case  of  the  removal  of  his 


268  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

body,  instead  of  the  altar-piece  and  monument,  the 
convent  was  to  receive  a  picture  for  their  high  altar,  of 
such  kind  as  the  king  should  appoint. 

The  emperor  next  expresses  his  concern  at  hearing 
that  the  pensions  which  he  had  granted  to  the  servants 
whom  he  had  dismissed  at  Xarandilla  had  been  very 
ill  paid,  and  he  entreats  the  king  to  order  their  punc- 
tual payment  for  the  future.  He  directs  that  the  friars 
of  Yuste,  and  the  friars  from  other  convents,  who  had 
been  specially  emplo^d  in  his  service  as  readers, 
preachers,  musicians,  or  in  other  capacities,  shall  re- 
ceive such  gratuities  as  shall  appear  sufficient  to 
father  Regla  and  Quixada.  To  the  confessor  himself 
he  bequeathes  an  annual  pension  of  four  hundred  du- 
cats, (about  <£  80  sterling,)  and  four  hundred  ducats 
in  legacy.  Of  Quixada  he  twice  speaks  in  the  most 
affectionate  terms,  acknowledging  his  long  and  good 
services,  and  his  willing  fidelity  in  incurring  the  ex- 
pense and  inconvenience  of  removing  his  wife  and 
household  to  Quacos.  Lamenting  that  he  has  done 
so  little  to  promote  his  interest,  he  earnestly  recom- 
mends him  to  the  king's  favor,  and  leaves  him  a  leg- 
acy of  two  thousand  ducats,  (X400  sterling,)  and  a 
pension  of  the  value  of  his  present  emoluments,  with- 
out mentioning  the  amount,  until  he  shall  be  provided 
with  a  better  appointment.  He  also  desires  the  in- 
fanta to  cause  the  amount  of  fines  recovered,  or  that 
should  be  recovered,  by  his  attorney,  from  the  poachers 
and  rioters  of  Quacos,  to  be  paid  into  the  hands  of 
a  person  named  by  the  executors,  for  distribution 
amongst  the  poor  of  the  village.  The  contents  of  his 
larder  and  cellar,  and  his  stores  of  provisions  in  gen- 
eral, at  the  day  of  his  decease,  and  likewise  the  dis- 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  269 

pensary,  with  its  drugs  and  vessels,  he  leaves  to  the 
brotherhood  of  Yuste ;  and  to  the  poor,  any  money 
which  may  remain  in  his  coffers  after  defraying  the 
wages  of  his  servants. 

These  are  all  mentioned  by  name,  and  for  the  most 
part  receive  pensions,  except  a  few,  to  whom  small 
gratuities  are  given,  it  being  explained  that  previous 
provision  has  been  made  for  them.  The  pensions 
range  from  four  hundred  florins,  (=£32  sterling,)  con- 
ferred on  the  doctor,  Mathys,  «to  ninety  florins,  which 
requite  the  services  of  Isabel  Plantin,  laundress  of  the 
table  linen.  The  gratuities  vary  from  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  maravedis,  (about  £  45  sterling,) 
left  to  the  secretary  Gaztelu,  to  seven  thousand  five 
hundred  maravedis,  given  to  Jorge  de  Diano,  a  boy 
employed  in  the  workshop  of  Torriano.  That  mecha- 
nician himself,  being  already  pensioned  to  the  amount 
of  two  hundred  crowns,  receives  only  fifteen  thousand 
maravedis ;  and  he  is  likewise  reminded  that  he  has 
been  paid  something  to  account  on  the  price  of  a 
clock  which  is  in  hand,  and  for  which  his  employer  is 
content  that  the  executors  shall  pay  a  fair  valuation. 

The  executors  of  the  will  were  Quixada,  Gaztelu, 
and  father  Regla.  Immediately  after  the  obsequies 
they  began  to  carry  its  provisions  into  effect.  The 
wages  of  the  servants  were  all  paid  in  gold,  and  most 
of  them  took  their  departure  to  Valladolid,  the  Flem- 
ings being  anxious  to  secure  berths  in  the  fleet  which 
was  then  assembling  at  Laredo,  to  carry  the  queen  of 
Hungary  to  her  government  in  the  Netherlands.  The 
cook  and  some  of  the  confectioners,  recommended  by 
Quixada,  were  taken  into  the  service  of  the  princess- 
regent.     Amongst  the  friars,  the  executors  distributed 

23  • 


270  THE    CLOISTER   LIFE 

eleven  hundred  and  ninety  ducats  in  gratuities.  The 
largest  of  these  gratuities  was  a  sum  of  two  hundred 
ducats  to  the  preacher  Villalva.  Fray  Lorenzo  de 
Losar  received  one  hundred  and  fifty  ducats,  for  act- 
ing as  purveyor  to  the  emperor's  household;  the  friars 
from  Zaragoza  and  Granada,  who  had  been  in  attend- 
ance as  preachers  for  three  months,  had  forty  each ; 
Fray  Marcos  de  Cardona,  counter-bass,  and  an  assist- 
ant in  the  garden  of  the  emperor,  seventy  ;  and  thirty- 
five  were  divided  amongst  the  four  relations  of  Fray 
Juan  de  Villamayor,  who  had  died  three  months  be- 
fore in  the  post  of  chapel-master.  Strict  injunctions 
were  laid  upon  the  prior  of  Yuste  that  no  one  was  to 
be  permitted,  under  any  pretext  whatever,  but  the 
king's  order,  to  lodge  in  the  palace,  which  he  and  his 
fraternity  were  expected  to  keep  in  proper  repair. 

Of  Don  John  of  Austria,  the  sole  acknowledgment 
of  him  as  son  of  Charles  the  Fifth,  and  the  only  decla- 
ration of  his  father's  intentions  with  regard  to  him, 
were  contained  in  a  separate  paper  executed  at  Brux- 
elles,  on  the  6th  of  June,  1554,  and  already  deposited 
in  the  custody  of  the  king.*  By  this  document 
Charles  acknowledged  that  he  required  that  Gcroni- 
mo, —  for  so  Don  John  was  called,  —  his  natural  son 
born  to  him  in  his  widowhood  of  a  German  unmarried 
woman,  should  be  educated  in  a  manner  befitting  his 
rank ;  and  he  intimated  his  wish  that  he  should  after- 
wards enter  one  of  the  reformed  monastic  orders ; 
provided,  however,  that  his  inclinations  were  not 
forced  or  even  influenced  in  the  matter.  In  the  event 
of  his  preferring  a  secular  career,  lands  of  the  annual 

*  Papiers  de  GrantxUe,  IV.  496.    See  also  Chap.  in.  p.  54,  note. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  271 

value  of  between  twenty  and  thirty  thousand  ducats, 
in  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  were  to  be  settled  upon 
him  and  his  heirs. 

Quixada  and  Gaztelu  were  employed  for  some 
weeks  in  drawing  up  an  inventory  of  the  emperor's 
effects,  and  in  superintending  their  removal  to  Valla- 
dolid.  The  regent  was  very  minute  in  the  instruc- 
tions which  she  sent  down  for  their  guidance.  On 
finding  that  the  physician  Cornelio,  and  some  of  the 
other  attendants,  had  asked  for  the  mules  in  the  im- 
perial stable,  and  that  the  old  one-eyed  pony  had  been 
actually  made  over  to  the  doctor,  she  issued  a  man- 
date, that  nothing  which  had  been  used  by  her  father, 
or  in  his  service,  should  be  given  away.  She  likewise 
required  that  his  favorite  cat  and  talking  parrot  should 
be  sent  to  her;  and  these  pets  were  accordingly  forth- 
with despatched  to  Valladolid  by  Quixada,  in  one  of 
the  imperial  litters,  attended  by  a  trusty  servant.* 
Dona  Magdalena  de  UUoa  improved  her  spare  time  in 
Estremadura  by  making  a  pilgrimage  with  Don  John 
of  Austria  to  the  shrine  of  Our  Lady  of  Guadalupe, 
and  adoring  beneath  the  galaxy  of  silver  lamps,  gifts 
of  royal  devotees,  to  which  her  companion  was  one 


*  The  litter  in  which  these  incongruous  passengers  travelled  was  prob- 
ably that  which  is  now  preserved  in  the  royal  armory  at  Madrid.  De- 
scribed in  the  catalogue  {Catalogo  de  la  Armeria  Real,  No.  2425,  8vo, 
Madrid,  1849,  p.  179)  as  something  between  a  black  leather  trunk  and  a 
Sclavonian  kibitka,  it  is  very  like  a  large  cradle.  It  is  engraved  in  Jubi- 
nal:  La  Armeria  Real  de  Madrid,  2  vol.,  fob,  Paris,  8.  A.  II.  pi.  30.  In 
the  same  armory  {Cat.,  No.  1931,  p.  121)  are  four  iron  trenchers,  which 
belonged  to  the  emperors  campaigning  canteen,  and  which  are  causti- 
cally contrasted,  in  the  Hand-book  for  S]xiin,  p.  450,  with  the  "golden 
necessaires'"  left  behind  by  the  runaway  Bonapartes  at  Vittoria  and 
Waterloo. 


272  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

day  to  add  the  brightest  star,  in  the  beautiful  "  fanal " 
taken  from  the  galley  of  the  Turkish  admiral  at  Le- 
panto.*  The  chamberlain  and  secretary  had  much 
difficulty  in  settling  various  small  and  unexpected 
claims  brought  against  the  emperor's  estate  by  the 
neighboring  peasants,  and  supported  by  their  friends 
the  friars.  At  length,  however,  these  quibblings  were 
disposed  of,  and  Quixada  was  able  to  bid  farewell  to 
Quacosf  and  to  Estremadura  early  in  the  month  of 
December. 

At  Valladolid,  funeral  honors  were  performed  for 
the  emperor,  in  the  presence  of  the  regent  and  her 
court,  in  the  beautiful  church  of  the  royal  Benedic- 
tines. A  sermon  was  preached  on  the  occasion  by 
Francisco  Borja,  from  the  text,  Ecce  long-avi  fug-iens 
et  mansi  in  solUudine,  "  Lo !  then  would  I  wander  afar 

*  Fr.  Gabriel  de  Talavera :  Hisloria  Je  Na.  Senora  de  Guadalupe,  4to, 
Toledo,  1597,  fol.  156. 

t  To  the  Hon.  Colonel  Percy,  who  spent  some  days  during  the  last 
winter  (1851 -2)  at  Yuste,  I  am  indebted  for  the  following  uaditibn  of 
the  Vera,  picked  up  from  the  bailiff  of  the  convent.  The  village  of  Qua- 
cos,  says  the  legend,  was  originally  called  by  the  more  euphonious  name 
of  Villaflor  del  Rey.  Don  John  of  Austria  attending  some  rural  festival 
there,  and  getting  into  a  quarrel  with  the  villagers,  received  a  blow  on 
the  head  so  severe,  that  he  was  carried  insensible  to  the  monastery  of 
Yuste.  The  emperor,  enraged  at  this  affront,  decreed  that  the  name  of 
the  village  should  be  changed  ;  and,  the  cry  of  a  duck  striking  his  ear  at 
the  moment  that  he  was  devising  a  new  appellation,  he  selected  the  word 
Quacos.  This  idle  tale  may  perhaps  be  founded  on  some  older  tradition ; 
but  it  is  certain  that  Quacos  was  so  called  before  Charles  or  Don  John 
came  to  Yuste,  in  the  letters  of  Quixada  and  Gaztelu  from  Xarandilla. 
Whatever  the  origin  of  the  name,  there  is  some  traditionary  reproach  at- 
tached to  it  The  inhabitants,  to  this  day,  dislike  any  allusion  to  the 
above  story ;  and  to  speak  to  a  native  of  the  place  of  "  Quacos  con  per- 
don,"  "  Quacos,  by  your  leave,"  as  if  it  were  a  word  unfit  for  ears  polite, 
is  a  mode  of  topographical  teasing  from  which  serious  quarrels  have  been 
known  to  arise. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  273 

off,  and  remain  in  the  wilderness."  *  It  was  filled 
with  praise  of  the  emperor  for  his  pious  magnanimity 
in  taking  leave  of  the  world  before  the  world  had 
taken  leave  of  him,  —  praise  which,  in  the  mouth  of  a 
Jesuit,  who  had  once  been  a  wealthy  grandee,  must 
have  savored  somewhat  of  self-glorification.  Amongst 
other  edifying  reminiscences  of  his  friend,  Borja  told 
his  hearers  that  he  had  it  from  the  lips  of  the  deceased, 
that  never,  since  he  was  one-and-twenty  years  old, 
had  he  failed  to  set  apart  some  portion  of  each  day 
for  inward  prayer. 

Solemn  services  were  also  performed  for  the  em- 
peror in  all  the  convents  of  the  order  of  Jerome ;  and 
the  great  fraternity  of  Guadalupe,  in  their  noble 
Gothic  church,  displayed  peculiar  magnificence  in 
honor  of  the  imperial  devotee,  to  whom,  when  a  pil- 
grim at  the  Virgin's  shrine  thirty-two  years  before,  the 
prior  had  granted  a  brief  of  brotherhood,  whereby  he 
was  entitled  to  the  benefit  of  fifty-four  annual  masses 
sung  by  the  friars.f  Obsequies  were  celebrated  by  the 
primate  of  Spain  at  Talavera  and  at  Toledo;  and 
Seville  and  Naples  also  distinguished  themselves  by 
the  lavish  loyalty  of  their  funeral  pomps. 

But  Bruxelles  excelled  all  the  cities  of  the  Austrian 
dominion  in  the  splendor  with  which  she  did  honor  to 
the  emperor's  memory.  The  ceremonies  took  place 
on  the  29th  and  30th  of  December.  The  procession, 
in  which  walked  Philip  the  Second,  robed  and  hooded 
like  a  friar,  and  attended  by  the  dukes  of  Brunswick 
and  Savoy,  and  a  host  of  the  nobility  of  Spain,  Ger- 


"  Psalm  liv.  7,  in  the  Vulgate  ;  or  in  our  translation,  Iv.  7. 
t  Talavera  :  Uist.  du  Guadalupe,  fol.  210. 


274  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

many,  and  the  Netherlands,  was  two  hours  in  passing 
fronn  the  palace  to  the  church  of  St.  Gudule.  Its 
principal  feature  was  a  great  galley,  placed  on  a  cun- 
ningly devised  ocean,  which  answered  the  double  pur- 
pose of  supporting  some  islands  emblematic  of  the 
Indies,  and  of  concealing  the  power  which  rolled  the 
huge  structure  along.  Fai^h,  Hope,  and  Charity  were 
the  crew  of  this  enchanted  bark ;  and  her  sides  were 
hung  with  twelve  paintings  of  Charles's  principal  ex- 
ploits, which  were  further  set  forth  in  golden  letter- 
press upon  the  sails  of  black  satin.  A  long  line  of 
horses  followed,  each  led  by  two  gentlemen,  and  bear- 
ing on  its  housings  the  blazon  of  one  of  the  states  of 
the  emperor.  They  were  led  up  the  aisle  of  the 
church,  past  the  altar,  and  past  the  stalls  occupied  by 
the  knights  of  the  golden  fleece.  As  the  last  horse, 
covered  with  a  black  footcloth,  went  by,  the  count  of 
Bossu,  one  of  the  knights,  the  early  playmate  and  dear 
friend  of  the  em^^eror,  threw  himself  on  his  knees,  and 
remained  for  some  time  prostrate  on  the  pavernent  in 
an  agony  of  grief.*  The  funeral  discourse  was  pro- 
nounced by  Francis  Richardot,  afterwards  bishop  of 
Arras,  an  eminent  scholar  and  divine,  and  esteemed 
the  most  eloquent  preacher  within  the  dominions  of 
,  Burgundy.f 

Funeral  honors  were  also  performed  in  most  of  the 


•  An  elaborate  account  of  it,  with  many  curious  plates,  came  from  the 
press  of  Ch.  Flantin.  La  magnifica  e  somtuosa  Pompa  Funerale  fatta  in 
BurseUe,  il  di  xxix  di  Decembre,  mdlviii,  nell'  essequie  dello  invUissimo 
Carlo  Quinto,  fol.,  An  versa,  1559. 

t  Papiers  de  Granvelle,  IV.  p.  510 ;  V.  p.  4,  note.  This  oraison /unibre, 
and  those  on  Mary  Queen  of  Hungary  and  Mary  Queen  of  England,  form 
a  very  rare  volume,  fol.,  Antwerp,  1558. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  275 

foreign  capitals,  and  those  at  Lisbon  and  Rome  were 
peculiarly  splendid.  They  were  celebrated  in  several 
places  in  France,  after  peace  had  been  concluded  be- 
tween the  crowns ;  and  even  our  Protestant  Elizabeth 
caused  a  solemn  dirge  and  mass  of  requiem  to  be 
sung  for  the  emperor's  soul  in  her  abbey  of  Westmin- 
ster.* It  was  computed  that  throughout  Europe  his 
obsequies  were  performed  in  upwards  of  three  thou- 
sand churches,  at  a  cost  of  six  millions  of  ducats.f 

The  church  of  Yuste  was  merely  a  temporary  rest- 
ing-place of  the  imperial  dead.  The  emperor,  in  his 
will,  had  confided  the  care  of  his  bones  to  his  son,  ex- 
pressing a  wish,  however,  to  be  laid  beside  his  wife 
and  his  parents  in  the  cathedral  of  Granada,  in  the 
splendid  chapel-royal,  rich  with  the  tombs  and  tro- 
phies of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  Philip,  however, 
shivering  in  the  rear  at  St.  Quentin,  had  already 
vowed  to  St.  Lawrence  the  great  monastery  which  it 
was  his  after  delight  to  make  the  chief  monument  of 
the  power  and  the  piety  of  the  house  of  Hapsburg. 
At  the  Escorial,  therefore,  he  united  the  bones  of  his 
father  and  mother,  and  placed  them,  on  the  4th  of 
February,  1574,  in  a  vault  in  front  of  the  high  altar, 
beneath  the  jasper  shrine  which  yet  contains  their  fine 
effigies  kneeling  in  emblazoned  mantles,  and  wrought 
in  bronze  by  Leoni.  Thou,  of  the  children  op 
Charles  the  Fifth,  says  the  inscription,  who  shalt 


•  On  the  24th  of  December,  1558.  Queen  Mary's  funeral  had  been 
celebrated  there  on  the  13th. 

t  Gregorio  Leti  {Vita  de  Carlo  V.,  4  torn.,  12mo,  Amsterdam,  1700, 
IV.  412,  413),  quoting,  without  saying  where  he  found  it,  an  account  of 
the  emperor's  life  and  death,  by  father  Regla,  says  that  Regla  computed 
the  number  of  services  at  3,700,  while  Saavedra  made  them  only  2,400. 


276  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

SURPASS  THE  GLORY  OF  HIS  ACTIONS,  TAKE  THIS  PLACE  : 
LET    THE    REST    REVERENTLY  FORBEAR.*       The  OCCasion 

of  this  first  funeral  solemnity  in  the  new  temple  was 
mariied  by  one  of  those  terrific  storms,  which  visit 
the  bleak  sierra,  and  which  were  sent,  as  the  monks 
supposed,  by  the  devil,  in  the  hope  of  overthrowing 
the  new  fortress  of  piety.f  A  grand  arch  of  timber, 
erected  at  the  portal  of  the  still  unfinished  church,  was 
blown  away  before  the  eyes  of  the  trembling  worship- 
pers, and  its  hangings  of  rich  brocades,  rent  into  minute 
shreds,  were  scattered  far  and  wide  over  the  surround- 
ing chase.  The  ceremonies  lasted  for  three  days ;  the 
emperor's  body,  which  had  been  brought  from  Yuste 
by  the  duke  of  Alcala  and  the  bishop  of  Jaen,  was 
once  more  laid  in  the  tomb,  with  all  the  rites  used  at 
the  interment  of  a  Jeromite  friar  ;  and  his  funeral  ora- 
tion was  pronounced  for  the  second  time  by  his  favor- 
ite preacher,  Villalva. 

Eighty  years  afterwards,  the  repose  of  Charles  was 
again  disturbed  by  his  great-grandson,  Philip  the 
Fourth.  For  thirty-three  years,  that  prince  was  en- 
gaged in  building  the  celebrated  pantheon,  begun  by 
his  father,  Philip  the  Third,  at  the  Escorial.  On  the 
16th  of  March,  1654,  the  dust  of  the  Austrian  kings 
of  Spain,  and  of  their  consorts  who  had  continued  the 
royal  line,  was  translated  from  the  plain  vault  of 
Philip  the  Second  to  this  splendid  sepulchral  chamber. 
Fray  Juan  de  Avellanada  pronounced  a  discourse  on 
Ezekiel's  text,  "  O  ye  dry  bones,  hear  the  word  of  the 

*  HtJirC  LOCUM  81  QUIS  POSTER.  CaROLO  V.  HABITAM  GLORIAU 
RERUM  GESTARUM  8PLENDOKE  SUPERAVERIS,  IPSE  SOLUS  OCCUPATO, 
CETERI    KEVERENTER    ABSTINETE. 

t  Siguenqa,  III.  p.  569. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  277 

Lord!"* — a  burst  of  intrepid  panegyric,  worthy  of 
the  audience,  which,  after  warning  future  kings  of 
Spain  that  they  must  live  well  if  they  wished  to  sleep 
by  the  side  of  the  holy  Philip  the  Second,  the  preacher 
closed  with  a  prayer  to  that  glorified  prince  and  his 
royal  companions  in  bliss  to  become  his  advocates 
before  the  throne  of  the  Almighty.f  Each  of  the 
seven  coffins  was  carried  by  three  nobles  ^nd  three 
Jeromite  friars ;  the  procession  was  headed  by  the  re- 
mains of  the  fair  Isabel  of  Bourbon,  the  first  queen  of 
Philip  the  Fourth,  and  it  was  closed  by  the  dust  of 
Charles  the  Fifth.  After  infinite  splendid  ceremonies, 
they  were  borne  round  the  church  in  procession,  and 
at  last  down  the  long  marble  staircase  to  their  superb 
place  of  rest,  which  gleamed  in  the  light  of  countless 
tapers  and  golden  lamps,  reflected  from  marble,  and 
jasper,  and  gold,  like  a  creation  of  Oriental  romance. 
The  grandees  who  bore  the  coffin  of  Charles  were  the 
prime-minister,  Don  Luis  de  Haro,  the  duke  of 
Abrantes,  and  the  marquis  of  Aytona.  As  the  body 
was  deposited  in  the  marble  sarcophagus,  the  cover- 
ings were  removed  to  enable  Philip  the  Fourth  to 
come  face  to  face  with  his  great  ancestor.  The  corpse 
was  found  to  be  quite  entire,  and  even  some  sprigs  of 
sweet  thyme,  folded  in  the  winding-sheet,  retained,  as 
the  friars  averred,  all  their  vernal  fragrance,  after  the 
lapse  of  fourscore  winters.  After  looking  for  some 
minutes  in  silence  at  the  pale  dead  face  of  the  hero 
of  his  line,  the  king  turned  to  Haro,  and  said,  "  Cuer- 
po  honrado,  honored  body,  Don  Luis."     "  Very  hon- 


*  Ezek.  xxxTii.  4. 

t  Los  Santos  :  Descripcion  dd  Escoricd,  fol.  183,  184. 
24 


278  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

ored,"  replied  the  minister;  words  brief,  indeed,  but 
very  pregnant,  for  the  prior  of  the  Escorial  has  re- 
corded that  they  comprehended  all  that  a  Christian 
ought  to  feel  on  so  solemn  an  occasion.* 

Once  again,  at  the  distance  of  four  generations,  the 
emperor's  grave  is  said  to  have  been  opened  by  the 
descendant  of  that  despised  Anthony  of  Bourbon  at 
whose  claims  on  Navarre  Charles  had  scoffed,  and 
whose  posterity  had  wrested  from  the  house  of  Aus- 
tria the  sceptre  of  Spain  and  the  Indies.  Mr.  Beck- 
ford  used  to  relate,  that  when  he  was  leaving  Madrid, 
Charles  the  Third,  as  a  parting  civility,  desired  to 
know  what  favor  he  would  accept  at  his  hands.  The 
boon  asked  and  granted  was  leave  to  see  the  face  of 
Charles  the  Fifth,  in  order  to  test  the  fidelity  of  the 
portraits  by  Titian.  The  finest  portraits  of  Charles, 
as  well  as  his  remains,  were  then  still  at  the  Escorial. 
The  marble  sarcophagus  being  moved  from  its  niche, 
and  the  lid  raised,  the  lights  of  the  Pantheon  once 
more  gleamed  on  the  features  of  the  dead  emperor. 
The  pale  brow  and  cheek,  the  slightly  aquiline  nose, 
the  protruding  lower  jaw,  the  heavy  Burgundian  lip, 
and  the  sad  and  thoughtful  expression,  remained 
nearly  as  the  Venetian  had  painted  them,  and  un- 
changed since  the  eyelids  had  been  closed  by  Quixa- 
da.  There,  too,  were  the  sprigs  of  thyme,  seen  by 
Philip  the  Fourth,  and  gathered  seven  ages  before  in 
the  woods  of  Yuste.f 

*  "  Exprimiendo  Su  Magestad  en  breves  palabras  todo  aqael  sentir,  a 
que  se  paede  alargar  la  piedad  Christiana  en  caso  semejante."  Los 
Santos:  Descrip.  del  Escorial,  fol.,  Madrid,  1657,  fol.  156. 

t  For  this  curioas  anecdote  I  am  indebted  to  the  kindness  of  Mr. 
Bcckford's   daughter,  the  duchess  of  Hamilton.    He  had  left,  unfortu- 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  279 

Those  who  have  read  this  record  of  the  last  years 
of  Charles  the  Fifth  may  perhaps  desire  to  know 
somewhat  of  the  subsequent  fortunes,  both  of  the  per- 
sonages who  have  figured  in  its  pages,  and  of  the 
convent  of  Yuste  and  its  miniature  palace. 

Queen  Mary  of  Hungary  did  not  live  to  complete 
her  preparations  for  returning  to  the  Netherlands.  To- 
wards the  close  of  July  she  had  had  a  slight  attack  of 
small-pox  ;  but  early  in  August  she  was  sufficiently 
recovered  to  propose  to  accompany  her  niece,  the 
princess-regent,  in  her  visit  to  Yuste.  Perhaps  her 
active  mind  and  frame,  filled  with  an  energy  which 
astonished  the  slow  officials  at  Valladolid,  after  a  life 
spent  in  stormy  councils  and  rapid  marches,  sunk  un- 
der the  fatigues  of  her  enforced  leisure.  She  died  at 
Cigales,  on  the  28th  of  October,  1558,  five  weeks  after 
the  death  of  her  brother.  So  passed  away,  in  the 
same  year,  and  within  a  few  months  of  one  another, 
the  royal  personages  of  the  remarkable  group  which 
landed  at  Laredo.  Sixteen  years  afterwards,  their 
ashes  were  united  at  the  Escorial,  queen  Eleanor 
being  brought  from  her  provisional  resting-place  at 
Merida,  and  queen  Mary  from  the  royal  abbey  of  San 
Benito  at  Valladolid.  Their  bronze  effigies,  royally 
robed,  kneel  behind  those  of  Charles  and  his  empress, 
with  clasped  hands  and  prayerful  faces,  turned  to  the 
magnificent  high  altar. 


nately,  no  note  or  memorandum  of  the  fact,  and  therefore  the  date,  and 
the  names  of  the  other  witnesses  of  this  singular  spectacle,  cannot  now 
be  recovered.  His  letters  prove  that  he  was  at  Madrid  at  the  close  of 
1787  and  in  the  spring  of  1795.  I  have  been  unable  to  obtain  any  cor- 
roborative evidence  from  Spain,  and  therefore  the  story  must  be  taken 
simply  as  told  by  Mr.  Beckford. 


280  THE    CLOISTER   LIFE    OF 

The  death  of  Mary  Tudor,  queen  of  England  and 
Spain,  coi)curred,  with  the  fortune  of  the  war,  to  dis- 
pose both  the  French  and  the  Spanish  raonarchs  to 
peaceful  counsels.  Philip  the  Prudent  immediately 
began  to  look  around  him  for  an  advantageous  match, 
worthy  of  the  matrimonial  genius  of  Austria,  After 
some  new  coquetting  with  the  court  of  Portugal  for 
the  forsaken  infanta,  he  fixed  upon  the  beautiful  Eliz- 
abeth of  Valois,  already  betrothed  to  his  son,  Don 
Carlos,  daughter  of  the  king  of  France.  The  duke  of 
Alba  married  her,  as  proxy  for  his  master,  in  June, 
1559 ;  and  Margaret,  sister  of  Henry  the  Second,  at 
the  same  time  gave  her  hand  to  the  duke  of  Savoy. 
It  was  at  the  tournament  held  in  honor  of  this  double 
alliance,  that  the  eye  of  Henry  was  pierced  by  the 
fatal  splinter  of  Montgomery's  lance.  Pope  Paul  the 
Fourth,  who  had  meanwhile  quarrelled  with  the 
worthless  nephews  for  whose  sakes  he  had  set  Chris- 
tendom in  a  flame,  soon  followed  his  ally  to  the  grave. 
Philip  was  now  able  to  return  to  Spain.  He  arrived 
at  Valladolid,  and  assumed  the  government  on  the 
8th  of  September ;  and  the  auspicious  event  was  cel- 
ebrated by  an  auto-de-fe,  at  which  the  galleries  and 
the  scaffold  were  brilliantly  filled  with  orthodox  gran- 
dees and  heretic  victims.  Among  the  courtiers  ap- 
peared the  count  of  Oropesa,  bearing  the  sword  of 
state,  the  symbol  of  so  much  cruel  injustice.  It  was 
at  this  butchery  that  Philip  uttered  the  sentiment 
which  so  gladdened  the  hearts  and  strengthened  the 
hands  of  the  savage  priesthood.  Don  Carlos  de  Sesa, 
one  of  the  noblest  and  best  of  the  sufferers,  as  he 
passed  beneath  the  royal  balcony,  appealed  to  the 
king  to  know  the  cause  for  which  he  was  sentenced 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  281 

to  die.  "  I  would  myself,"  said  Philip,  "  carry  the 
wood  to  burn  my  own  son,  were  he  a  heretic  like 
you."  * 

The  infanta  Juana,  princess  of  Brazil,  relieved  of 
her  regency  by  the  arrival  of  the  king,  and  still  disap- 
pointed in  her  hopes  of  obtaining  the  regency  of  Por- 
tugal, brought  her  brief  secular  career  to  a  close  at  the 
age  of  twenty-three.  Retiring  to  Madrid,  she  there 
founded  a  nunnery,  selecting  her  first  barefooted  re- 
cluses, by  the  advice  of  father  Borja,  from  the  Francis- 
can convent  of  Santa  Clara,  at  Gandia.  Some  years 
before,  a  certain  holy  confessor  of  that  house,  praying 
one  night  alone  in  the  chapel,  at  the  shrine  of  Our 
Lady  of  Grace,  beheld  seven  stars  glide  from  under 
the  Virgin's  mantle,  and  revolve,  each  in  its  course, 
around  the  dim  aisles.  These  stars,  it  was  revealed 
to  him,  represented  seven  new  convents,  of  which  the 
Gandian  house  was  to  be  the  mother.  Six  of  the 
offshoots  had  already  sprung  ;  the  piety  of  the  infanta 
now  provided  the  last  in  the  royal  nunnery  of  Our 
Lady  of  Consolation,  of  which  the  first  abbess  was  a 
Borja  and  aunt  of  the  Jesuit.  This  convent  soon  be- 
came one  of  the  finest  in  Madrid,  and  no  less  remark- 
able for  its  stately  cloister  and  pleasant  gardens,  than 
for  the  piety  of  its  noble  virgins,  who  for  a  while  had 
for  their  confessor  Fray  Nicolas  Factor,  the  canonized 
capuchin  and  painter  of  Valencia.  Here  Dona  Juana 
devoted  herself,  for  the  remainder  of  her  days,  to  re- 
ligious exercises,  not  assuming  the  veil,  yet  becoming 
every  year  more  strict  in  her  self-imposed  rule  of  life. 
Her  favorite  relaxation  was  to   take   the  air  at  the 


Cabrera:  D.  Filipe  IL,  p.  236. 
24* 


282  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

country  palace  of  the  Pardo,  attended  by  a  band  of 
musicians ;  but  even  this  harmless  pleasure  she  soon 
abandoned  as  sinful.  Her  chief  occupation  was  em- 
broidering scarfs  and  handkerchiefs,  which  she  like- 
wise displayed  great  skill  in  selling  at  a  high  price  to 
her  courtly  visitors  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor.  If  a 
confessor  of  reputation  came  to  Madrid,  she  would  go 
wrapped  in  her  mantle  and  veil,  and  kneel  in  her  turn 
among  the  crowd  of  penitents  who  flocked  to  his 
grated  chair.  Her  joy  was  to  enrich  her  convent  with 
relics,  which  she  enshrined  in  caskets  of  silver  and 
gold ;  and  in  the  chapel  where  they  were  kept,  she 
made  herself  an  oratory,  which  became  her  place  of 
daily  resort  for  meditation  and  prayer,  or,  as  a  biog- 
rapher called  it,  "the  Aranjuez  of  her  devout  pleas- 
ures, the  Pardo  of  her  spiritual  delights."  But  in 
spite  of  her  secluded  habits,  Brantome,  with  what 
truth  I  know  not,  asserts  that  she  wished  to  marry 
Charles  the  Ninth  of  France,  a  prince  fourteen  years 
younger  than  herself,  and  that  she  felt  it  as  a  bitter 
disappointment  when  her  niece,  the  archduchess  Eliz- 
abeth, came  as  a  bride  to  the  Tuileries.*  Dying  after 
a  short  illness  at  the  Escorial,  in  1573,  Dona  Juana 
was  buried  in  her  favorite  convent  at  Madrid,  five 
years  before  her  son,  Don  Sebastian,  was  slain  in 
battle  by  the  Moors  of  Barbary.  Shortly  after  her 
death,  Fray  Nicolas  Factor,  saying  a  mass  for  her 
soul,  beheld  her  in  a  vision,  attended  by  St.  Mary 
Magdalene,  St.  Ines,  and  St.  Dorothea,  which  he  took 
for  a  sign  that  she   was   already  released  from  the 

•  Brantome  :  (Ewn-es,  8  vols.,  8vo,  Paris,  1787,  II.  p.  541. 


THE    EMPEROR   CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  283 

pains  of  purgatory.*  Her  sister,  the  widowed  empress 
Mary,  came  to  Madrid,  in  1580,  and  took  up  her 
abode  in  the  convent  of  Our  Lady  of  Consolation, 
where  her  daughter,  the  archduchess  Margaret,  took 
the  veil,  and  lived  for  fifty  years,  a  burning  and  a  shin- 
ing light  amongst  the  devout  virgins  of  Castille. 

From  registering  the  effects  of  the  dead  emperor, 
Luis  Quixada  passed  into  the  service  of  the  reigning 
king.  The  letter,  in  w^hich  he  narrated,  on  the  30th 
of  September,  the  principal  circumstances  of  the  im- 
perial death-bed  to  Philip,  concluded  with  these 
words :  — "  For  myself  I  will  not  be  importunate 
with  your  majesty,  but  only  ask  you  to  remember 
that  I  have  served  your  father,  to  the  best  of  my  pow- 
er, for  thirty-seven  years,  and  that  I  will  serve  you  to 
my  life's  end."  Philip  had  an  early  occasion  to  ob- 
serve the  fidelity  and  tact  with  which  the  old  soldier 
could  fulfil  a  trust  and  keep  a  secret.  Immediately 
after  the  death  of  Charles,  it  was  whispered  at  Valla- 
dolid  that  there  lived  in  Quixada's  family  a  lad  who 
was  supposed  to  be  his  master's  son  ;  and  the  rumor 
reaching  the  ear  of  the  regent,  secretary  Vazquez,  by 
her  desire,  wrote  confidentially  to  the  chamberlain,  to 
inquire  if  it  was  true.  Quixada  replied,  that  a  boy, 
who  had  been  committed  to  his  care,  some  years  be- 
fore, by  a  friend  whom  he  could  not  name,  certainly 
resided  in  his  house ;  but  what  reason  was  there  for 

•Christ.  Moreno:  Vida  de  NiccJas  Factor,  4to,  Barcelona,  1618,  p. 
178.  The  other  particulars  of  the  princess's  life  are  taken  from  Fr. 
Juan  Carillo,  Relacion  historica  de  la  real  Fundacion  del  Monasterio  de 
las  Descalzas  de  Sta.  Clara  de  Madrid,  de  las  T'ldas  de  Da.  Juana  de  Aus- 
tria sit  Fundadora,  y  de  la  Emperatriz  Maria  su  Hemiana,  &c.,  4to,  Ma- 
drid, 1616.  See  al.^o  Gcr.  de  Quintana:  Historia  de  Madrid,  fol., 
Madrid,  1629,  fol.  412. 


284  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

supposing  that  his  parentage  had  been  correctly  sur- 
mised, when  the  emperor  had  mentioned  his  name 
neither  in  his  will,  nor  in  the  codicil  affixed  to  it  ? 
Not  satisfied  with  this  answer,  Vazquez  repeated  the 
question,  which  was  again  evaded.  Meanwhile, 
Quixada  applied  to  the  king,  whom  he  knew  to  be 
in  the  secret,  for  instructions.  He  again  wrote,  on 
the  13th  of  December,  from  Valladolid,  saying  that 
the  matter  was  much  discussed,  but  that  he  always 
denied  any  knowledge  of  it,  and  should  continue  to 
hold  the  same  language,  even  to  the  regent,  who  had 
hitherto  had  the  goodness  to  ask  no  questions.  Being 
aware,  as  he  was,  of  the  king's  desire  that  nothing 
should  be  made  public  until  he  himself  arrived  in 
Spain,  he  had  taken  every  precaution  to  insure  se- 
crecy ;  but  he  had  nevertheless  been  careful  that  the 
boy  should  be  educated  according  to  his  quality  in 
life. 

.  From  court  Quixada  and  his  wife  soon  retired,  with 
Don  John,  to  Villagarcia.  When  Philip  the  Second 
came  to  Spain,  in  1559,  he  appointed  his  brother  and 
his  guardian  to  meet  him  near  the  neighboring  con- 
vent of  San  Pedrq  de  la  Espina.  Quixada  assem- 
bled his  vassals,  and  rode  forth  in  state  with  his  charge, 
having  first  made  the  secret  of  his  birth  known  to 
Dona  Magdalena,  and  asked  pardon  for  having  so 
long  withheld  it  from  her.  They  met  the  king  in  a 
wild,  rocky  glen,  in  the  chase  of  Torozos,  and  were 
graciously  received,  Philip,  who  had  come  thither  un- 
der pretext  of  hunting,  remarking  that  he  had  never 
captured  game  which  had  given  him  so  much  pleas- 
ure.*    They  afterwards  followed  the  court  to  Madrid, 

*  Villafane  :   Vida  de  Da.  Magd.  de  Ulloa,  pp.  49,  50,  52. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH. 


285 


where  Quixada  had  an  opportunity  of  once  more  sig- 
nalizing his  devotion  to  his  master's  son,  by  rescuing 
him  from  a  fire,  which  burnt  down  their  house  in  the 
night,  before  he  attended  to  the  safety  of  Dona  Mag- 
dalena.  His  loss  by  this  fire  amounted  to  a  hundred 
thousand  ducats,  besides  the  destruction  of  his  family 
archives.  His  services  were  not  neglected  by  the 
king,  who  made  him  master  of  the  horse  to  the  heir 
apparent,  and  president  of  the  Council  of  the  Indies, 
and  gave  him,  besides,  the  commanderies  of  Viso,  El 
Moral,  and  Santa  Cruz  de  Argamasilla,  considerable 
benefices  in  the  order  of  Calatrava.* 

When  Don  Juan  was  sent,  in  1569,  to  command 
against  the  Moriscos,  whom  Christian  oppression  and 
bad  faith  had  driven  to  a  revolt  in  the  Alpuxarras,  the 
old  mayordomo  went  with  him  as  a  military  tutor, 
with  the  rank  of  general  of  infantry.  Luis  de  Avila 
served  in  the  same  expedition.  They  were  reconnoi- 
tring the  strong  mountain  fortress  of  Seron,  when 
a  bold  sally  from  the  place  threw  the  Castillians  into 
confusion,  bordering  on  flight.  Quixada  was  engaged 
in  rallying  and  reassuring  them,  when  a  ball  from  an 
infidel  gun  brought  his  campaigns  to  a  close.  Shot 
through  the  shoulder,  he  fell  by  the  side  of  his  pupil, 
from  whose  hemlet  a  ball  glanced  as  he  covered  the 
retreat  of  the  party  who  bore  the  wounded  veteran 
from  his  last  field.f      Carried  to  Canilles,  Quixada 

*  El  Moral  was  worth,  in  1669,  7,500  ducats  annually;  Journal  du 
Voyage  en  Espagne,  4to,  Paris,  1682,  p.  369.  Argamasilla  had  been 
previously  held  by  the  favorite  Ruy  Gomez  de  Silva  ;  Hist,  de  la  Casa  de 
Silva,  II.  464. 

1  Luys  de  Marmol  Carvajal :  Hisforia  del  Rebelion  y  Castigo  de  los 
Moriscos  de  Granada,  fol.,  Malaga,  1600,  fol.  195. 


286  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

died  there  on  the  2oth  of  February,  1570,  in  the  arms 
of  his  wife,  who  had  hastened  from  Madrid  to  nurse 
him.*  Don  John  mourned  for  him  as  for  a  father, 
and  buried  him,  with  military  honors,  in  the  church  of 
the  Jeromite  friars  at  Baza,  whence  his  bones  were 
afterwards  removed  to  Villagarcia. 

When  the  good  Dona  Magdalena  left  the  Christian 
camp,  Don  John  rode  for  some  miles  beside  her  litter, 
and  embraced  her  tenderly  when  they  parted.  Dur- 
ing the  rest  of  the  campaign,  amidst  the  fatigues  and 
anxieties  of  command,  he  seized  every  opportunity  of 
writing  to  her  ;  and  one  of  his  hurried  letters  from  the 
field,  recurring  to  their  mutual  loss,  concludes  with 
these  affectionate  words: — "Luis  died  as  became 
him,  fighting  for  the  glory  and  safety  of  his  son,  and 
covered  with  immortal  honor.  Whatever  I  am,  what- 
ever I  shall  be,  I  owe  to  him,  by  whom  I  was  formed, 
or  rather  begotten,  in  a  nobler  birth.  Dear  sorrowing 
widowed  mother!  I  only  am  left  to  you,  and  to  you 
indeed  do  I  of  right  belong,  for  whose  sake  Luis  died, 
and  you  have  been  stricken  with  this  woe.  Moderate 
your  grief  with  your  wonted  wisdom.  Would  that  I 
were  near  you  now,  to  dry  your  tears,  or  mingle  tiiem 
with  mine !  Farewell,  dearest  and  most  honored 
mother  I  and  pray  to  God  to  send  back  your  son  from 
these  wars  to  your  bosom."f  'We  may  be  sure  Mag- 
dalena's  oratory  was  the  scene  of  many  such  prayers. 
Her  childless  widowhood  was  passed  at  her  husband's 
house  of  Villagarcia,  and  was  chiefly  spent  in  works 

•  Villafane,   Vida  de  Da.  Magd.  de  Ullod,  p.  78. 

t  Preserved  in  a  Latin  dress  in  Joannis  Austriaci  T7/a,  auctore  Antonio 
Osorio,  a  MS.  in  the  National  Library  at  Madrid,  for  a  transcript  of  which 
I  am  indebted  to  my  friend  Don  Pascual  de  Gayangos. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  287 

of  charity  and  devotion,  performed  for  the  benefit  of 
his  soul.      For  her  darling  young  prince  she  busied 
herself  in  occupations  of  a  more  practical  and  secular 
kind ;  and  the   hero  of  Lepanto  wore  no  linen  but 
wl^t  was  fashioned  by  her  loving  hands.      The  filial 
affection  with  which  he  always  regarded  her  is  one  of 
the  most  pleasing  features  in  his  wayward  character 
and  checkered  history ;  he  never  came  back  to  Spain 
without  paying  her  a  visit,  or  went  to  the  wars  with- 
out bidding  her  farewell.*     When  she  was  founding 
her  college  at  Villagarcia,  in   1576,  he  wrote  to  the 
pope's  secretary  to  ask  for  the  necessary  licenses,  en- 
forcing his  request  with  these  words :  — "  There  is 
nothing  I  so  much  desire  as  to  gratify  the  wish  of  this 
lady,  whom  I  regard  as  my  own  mother."f     In  1577, 
as  he  took  leave  of  her,  on  going  to  govern  the  Neth- 
erlands, she  was  seized  with  a  presentiment  of  evil, 
and  instituted  daily  masses  for  his  health.     Her  fore- 
bodings were  just;  for  within  two  years,  into  which 
had  been  compressed  an  age  of  toil,  anxiety,  and  mor- 
tification, he  lay  on  his  death-bed  at  Namur,  raving, 
in  his  delirium,  of  battle-fields,  and  leaving,  as  his  last 
message  to  the  brother,  who  was  suspected  of  repaying 
his  loyal  service  with  poison,  the  request  that  his  bones 
might  be  laid  near  the  dust  of  his  sire  at  the  Escorial.  J 
Dona  Magdalena's  chief  tie  to  the  world  was  now 
broken.     For  a  while  she  adopted  Don  John's  natural 
daughter  Anna,  but  she  placed  the  child,  at  the  age 
of  seven  years,  in  a  convent,  at  Madrid,  where  she 
afterwards  took  the  veil.     Religion  had  then  no  rival 
in  the  widow's  heart ;  and  her  days  were  passed  in 

*  Vanderhammen :  Vida  de  D.  Juan  de  Austria,  fol.  292. 

t  Villafane  :   llda  de  Da.  Magd.  de  Ulloa,  p.  284. 

}  Vanderhammen  :   Vida  de  D.  Juan  de  Austria,  fol.  324. 


288  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

doing  good,  after  the  fashion  prescribed  by  her  Jesuit 
counsellors.  For  the  company,  she  built  and  endowed 
colleges,  not  only  at  Villagarcia,  but  at  Oviedo  and 
Santander ;  and  her  bounty  furnished  many  a  silver 
chalice  and  paten  to  the  rural  churches  of  Biscay  and 
Asturias.  Her  life  of  kindly  deed's  and  blameless  en- 
thusiasm came  to  an  end  in  1598,  when  she  was  laid 
beside  her  lord  in  the  collegiate  church  of  Villagarcia. 
Amongst  the  relics  of  that  temple,  two  crucifixes  were 
held  in  peculiar  veneration,  one  being  that  which 
Magdalena  had  pressed  to  her  dying  lips,  the  other  a 
trophy  rescued,  by  the  emperor's  old  companion  in 
arms,  from  a  Moorish  bonfire  in  the  Alpuxarras.* 

William  Van  Male,  the  amiable  and  scholarly  gen- 
tleman of  the  emperor's  chamber,  returned  to  Flan- 
ders, with  the  slender  annual  pension  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  florins,  which  was  to  be  reduced  to  one  half 
on  his  succeeding  to  the  keepership  of  the  palace  of 
Bruxelles,  a  post  of  which  the  king  had  granted  him 
the  reversion.  On  the  17th  of  February,  1561,  Philip 
the  Second  wrote  from  Toledo,  to  the  bishop  of 
Arras,  his  minister  in  Flanders,  that  he  had  heard  that 
Van  Male  was  likely  to  write  some  history  of  his 
majesty,  now  in  glory ;  that  it  was  possible  such  a 
work  might  contain  some  things  either  untrue  or  un- 
worthy of  the  merits  of  the  deceased  ;  and  that  there- 
fore the  bishop  had  better  institute  a  search,  as  if  for 
some  other  purpose,  amongst  Van  Male's  papers,  and 
if  any  such  writings  were  found,  send  it  to  him  to 
Spain,  that  it  might  be  burned  as  it  deserved.  The 
emperor's  poor  scholar  and  faithful  servant  was  hap- 

*  ViUa&Se :  Vida  de  M.  de  Ulha,  pp.  78,  443. 


THE    EMPEROR   CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  289 

pily  saved  this  indignity  by  the  protecting  hand  of 
death.  On  the  7th  of  March,  Arras  replied  from 
Bruxelles,  that  Van  Male  having  died  before  the  re- 
ceipt of  the  king's  letter,  he  himself  had  already  taken 
the  precaution  of  searching  amongst  his  papers  for 
historical  documents  or  notes,  but  that  none  had  been 
found.  A  good  many  days  before  his  death.  Van 
Male  himself,  he  reported,  had  been  observed  to  tear 
up  and  burn  a  large  quantity'of  papers.  He  had  also 
been  often  heard,  by  his  intimate  friends,  to  lament, 
even  with  tears,  how  Luis  Quixada,  soon  after  the 
emperor's  decease,  had  taken  from  him,  almost  by 
force,  the  memoirs  which  his  majesty  and  he  had 
composed  ;  and  to  say  that  he  hoped  nevertheless  one 
day  to  write,  from  memory,  an  account  of  his  master, 
and  that  he  should  have  already  begun  the  work  had 
it  not  been  for  the  infirm  state  of  his  health.*  If  this 
report  of  Van  Male's  table-talk  be  true,  it  seems  plain 
that  the  loss  of  the  curious  memoirs  of  Charles  the 
Fifth,  composed  by  himself  and  translated  into  Latin 
by  an  elegant  scholar,  —  if  indeed  they  are  lost,  and 
not  only  buried  in  some  forgotten  hoard  of  Spanish 
historic  lore,  —  may  be  added  to  the  black  catalogue 
of  the  misdeeds  of  his  dull,  bigoted,  and  cruel  son. 
Van  Male  was  buried  in  the  church  of  St.  Gudule,  at 
Bruxelles,  where  his  widow,  Hippolyta  Reynen,  was 
laid  by  his  side  in  1579.  Their  epitaph  praised  the 
probity  and  various  learning  of  the  husband,  and  the 
piety  and  prudence  of  the  wife.f     Their  son  Charles 

*  Papiers  de  Granvelle,  VI.  p.  291 . 

t  It  is  cited  by  M.  de  Reiffenberg  (Lettres  de  G.  Van  Male,  p.  23)» 
and  gives  January  1st,  1560,  as  the  date  of  Van  Male's  death,  which 
M.  Gachard  thinks  reconcilable  with  the  date  in  the  Granvelle  Papers, 
25 


290  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

considerably  bettered  the  fortunes  of  the  family ;  he 
was  ambassador  in  France  in  1598,  and  one  of  the 
negotiators  of  the  treaty  of  Verviers  for  the  archduch- 
ess infanta  Isabella;  their  grandson,  Aurelius  Au- 
gustus, died  in  Madrid  in  1662,  first  member  of  the 
supreme  council  of  the  Netherlands,  in  the  service  of 
Philip  the  Fourth,  and  was  buried  in  the  church  of 
St.  Andrew,  beneath  an  epitaph  which  was  a  long 
relation  of  dignities  and  virtues.* 

Of  Martin  de  Gaztelu,  the  prudent  and  painstaking 
secretary  of  the  emperor,  my  researches  have  discov- 
ered no  further  trace,  beyond  the  fact  that  he  assisted 
at  the  final  obsequies  of  his  late  master  at  the  Esco- 
rial,  in  1574. 

From  the  vigils  and  dirges  of  Yuste,  Fray  Juan  de 
Regla  hastened  to  court  to  await  the  arrival  of  the 
king.  Philip  received  him  graciously  and  gave  him 
a  long  audience,  for  the  purpose  of  hearing  his  ac- 
count of  the  emperor's  retirement  and  death,  and  cer- 
tain secrets  respecting  Don  John  of  Austria,  confided 
to  him  by  the  dying  man  for  the  ear  of  his  successor. 
It  may  be  fairly  supposed  that  the  friar  discreetly 
suppressed  his  own  suggestions,  if,  indeed,  they  were 
his,  as  to  the  alteration  of  the  line  of  succession  in 
Don  John's  favor:  for  he  was  commanded  to  remain 
at  court  as  one  of  the  executors  of  the  emperor's  will, 
and  received  an  order  for  the  payment  of  his  pension 
out  of  the  royal  revenues  in  the  see  of  Calahorra. 
He  was  afterwards  elected  prior  of  the  Jeromite  con- 
by  allowing  for  the  two  ways  of  counting  the  years,  from  the  1st  January 
or  from  Easter.  See  the  Bulletin  de  FAcad.  Ro}/.  de  Bruxelles,  11th  Jan- 
uary, 1845. 

•  Reiffenberg :  Lettres  de  G.  Van  Male,  pp.  xxiii.,  xxx.,  xxxii. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  291 

vent  at  Madrid,  a  house  rich  with  the  gifts  of'  kings 
and  queens,  and  much  frequented  and  favored  by  the 
royal  family;  and  ere  long,  in  spite  of  his  repugnance 
to  the  custody  of  a  royal  conscience,  he  accepted  the 
post  of  confessor  to  his  majesty.  We  are  assured  by 
his  panegyrist  that  he  bore  these  honors  with  exem- 
plary meekness  and  moderation,  asking  for  favors  only 
for  his  convent,  and  referring  all  petitioners  who 
besought  his  influence  in  the  closet,  either  to  the  tri- 
bunals of  justice  or  to  the  ministers  of  state.  Of  his 
annual  pension  he  gave  one  fourth  to  the  poor  of  Ca- 
lahorra,  and  the  rest  to  his  Jeromite  brethren  at  Zara- 
goza.  But  if  he  were  free  from  avarice  and  political 
intrigue,  he  was  deeply  stained  with  another  vice  of 
his  calling.  His  hate  was  bitter  and  inextinguishable, 
and  displayed  itself  in  the  eager  and  unscrupulous 
zeal  with  which  he  ran  at  the  head  of  the  pack  that 
hunted  the  unfortunate  archbishop  Carranza  into  the 
castle  of  St.  Angelo.  He  died  of  fever  in  the  summer 
of  1574,  in  the  rising  cloisters  of  the  Escorial.*  Dur- 
ing his  long  life  he  had  formed  a  considerable  col- 
lection of  books,  which  he  bequeathed,  as  a  last  token 
of  filial  love,  to  his  mother  convent  of  Sta.  Engracia, 
and  which  was  accordingly  added  to  its  noble  library, 
famous  for  literary  treasures,  and  for  the  lovely  pros- 
pect commanded  by  its  grand  windows,  extending 
over  the  garden  of  the  Ebro  to  the  snowy  peaks  of 
the  Pyrenees.! 

Fray  Francisco  de  Villalva,  on  the  return  of  Philip 
the  Second  to  Spain,  was  appointed  one  of  his  preach- 

*  Siguen^a,  III.  p.  448. 

t  Vine.  Blasco  de  Lanuza :  Historia  de  Aragon,  2  torn  ,  4tOj  Zaragoza, 
1622,  I.  110. 


292  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

ers,  and  was  ever  afterwards  much  in  his  confidence  in 
ecclesiastical  affairs.  In  framing  the  constitution  of 
the  convent  of  the  Escorial,  in  which  the  Jeromites 
saw  with  exultation  their  ancient  seats  of  Lupiana 
and  Guadalupe  outdone  in  magnificence,  Villalva 
was  constantly  consulted.  He  was  likewise  em- 
ployed to  report  on  the  claim  of  the  metropolitan 
church  of  Toledo  to  retain  a  missal  and  breviary  of 
its  own  in  spite  of  a  decree  of  the  council  of  Trent ; 
and  he  drew  up,  on  this  subject,  a  paper  so  learned 
and  so  lucid,  that  it  silenced,  and  his  friends  said 
convinced,  the  successor  of  St.  Ildefonso  and  his 
chapter  of  golden  canons.  Preaching  before  the  king 
at  the  Escorial  on  Easter-day,  1575,  Villalva  was 
seized,  as  he  descended  from  the  pulpit,  with  an  ill- 
ness of  which  he  died  in  a  few  days.  Notwithstand- 
ing his  fame  as  a  preacher,  none  of  his  sermons  ap- 
pear to  have  found  their  way  to  the  press ;  but  as  his 
celebrated  discourse  at  the  emperor's  funeral  at  Yuste 
was  handed  about  in  manuscript,  and  sent  both  to 
the  regent  at  Valladolid  and  to  the  king  at  Bruxelles, 
it  is  possible  that  it  may  still  survive  in  some  of  the 
older  libraries  of  Spain  or  the  Netherlands.* 

The  preacher.  Fray  Juan  de  A^alores,  was  general 
of  the  order  of  Jerome  from  1558  to  1561 ;  he  was 
afterwards  named  by  the  king  as  one  of  the  commis- 
sioners to  examine  the  famous  propositions  of  arch- 
bishop Carranza;  and  he  eventually  harangued  his 
way  to  the  patriarchal  chair  and  the  mitre  of  the 
Canaries.f 

Fray  Juan  de  Santandres,  the  third  preacher,  ended 

•  Los  Santos  :  Hist,  de  San  Geron.,  p.  515. 
1  Siguenija,  III.  pp.  207,  370. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  293 

his  days  as  friar  of  his  convent  at  Talavera,  the  chief 
incident  and  reward  of  his  harmless  and  obscure  life 
being,  that  it  was  vouchsafed  to  him  to  foretell,  at 
some  distance  of  time,  the  exact  day  and  hour  of  his 
own  death.* 

Fray  Antonio  de  Villacastin,  the  builder  of  the 
palace  of  Yuste,  returned  to  his  convent  of  La  Sisla, 
near  Toledo,  and  for  some  years  performed  the  hum- 
bler functions  of  baker  to  the  fraternity.  When  the 
building  of  the  Escorial  was  commenced,  in  1563,  he 
was  appointed  master  of  the  works ;  and  for  forty 
years  he  superintended  the  execution  of  every  detail 
of  the  mighty  fabric,  from  the  hewing  of  the  granite 
by  Biscayan  masons,  to  the  painting  of  the  frescoes 
on  wall  or  dome  by  Cambiaso  or  Tibaldi.  His  clear 
head,  strong  memory,  cool  temper,  and  sound  practi- 
cal knowledge  enabled  him  to  fill  the  post  with  great 
credit  to  himself,  and  to  the  general  satisfaction  both 
of  those  whose  money  he  spent  and  of  those  whose 
labors  he  directed.  Philip  the  Second  was  very  fond 
of  him ;  being  attracted  at  first,  it  is  said,  by  the  retir- 
ing habits  of  the  friar,  who  always  retreated  at  his 
approach,  and  was  caught  in  the  end  only  by  a  strat- 
agem, the  king  following  him  along  the  top  of  an 
unfinished  wall,  which  afforded  no  way  of  escape.  In 
the  course  of  his  duties,  he  had  his  share  of  the  hard 
knocks,  and  hair-breadth  escapes,  of  which  scaffold- 
ings and  cranes  offer  so  many  occasions.  Later  in  life, 
he  was  afflicted  with  a  dangerous  swellmg  in  the  arm, 
for  which  the  surgeon  threatened  amputation.  But 
one  night,  as  he  lay  awake  with  the  pain,  he  felt  a 

*  Siguen^ii,  III.  p.  193. 
23  ' 


294  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

pair  of  hands  rubbing  and  kneading  the  diseased  limb, 
which  forthwith  began  to  recover,  and  was  as  sound 
as  the  other  in  a  few  days.  Fray  Antonio  then  con- 
fided the  fact  to  the  prior  Siguen^a,  who  agreed  with 
him  in  believing  that  the  mysterious  manipulator 
was  none  other  than  the  blessed  St.  Lawrence  him- 
self. When  the  huge  monastery  was  completed,  the 
eyes  of  Villacastin  were  attacked  with  cataract, 
which,  not  being  operated  upon  by  the  saint  of  the 
gridiron,  rendered  the  sufferer  quite  blind.  He  died 
in  1603,  aged  ninety,  and  he  was  interred,  by  his  own 
desire,  beneath  the  cloister  pavement,  at  the  door  of 
the  cell  in  which  he  had  so  long  lived  and  labored. 
In  the  church  of  the  Escorial,  Luca  Cambiaso  has  in- 
troduced the  pale  grave  face  of  Villacastin,  very  near 
his  own,  in  the  group  on  the  threshold  of  the  glory  of 
heaven,  which  he  painted  in  fresco,  on  the  vaulted 
ceiling  of  the  choir. 

From  Yuste,  Juanelo  Torriano  went  to  Toledo, 
where  he  was  employed  by  the  corporation  to  supply 
the  city  with  water  from  the  Tagus,  which  flows  be- 
neath its  rock-built  w^alls.  Of  this  work  he  had,  many 
years  before,  in  Italy,  constructed  a  model,  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  his  patron,  the  Marques  del  Vasto,  who 
had  come  from  Spain  enchanted  with  the  noble  old 
capital,  and  grieving  for  the  dearth  of  w^ater  which  it 
endured,  though  girdled  with  a  deep  and  abundant 
stream.  The  merit  of  the  plan  belonged  partly  to 
Roberto  Valtmrio,  but  many  improvements  were  add- 
ed by  Torriano  ;  the  water  being  raised  to  the  height 
of  the  alcazar  by  an  ingenious  combination  of  wheels, 
placed  in  an  edifice  of  brick  built  on  the  margin  of 
the  river.     The  learned  Morales  left  a  long  descrip- 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE   FIFTH.  295 

tion  of  the  work,  or  arti/icio,  as  it  was  called,  and 
lauded  it  as  a  miracle  of  mechanical  genius.  He  like- 
wise furnished  a  Latin  inscription  for  a  statue  of  the 
artist,  with  which  it  was  at  one  time  intended  to 
crown  the  building,  and  a  copy  of  verses  which  con- 
clude with  these  extravagant  lines  :  — 

"  Aerias  rapes  jubet  hunc  transcendere  ;  paret ; 
Atqae  hie  sideribas  proximus  ecce  flnit"  * 

"  He  bids  the  Tagas  scale  the  rocks,  and  lo  ! 
Obedient^  near  the  stars,  the  waters  flow.'' 

In  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  work 
was  still  in  use,  and  was  noticed  by  Quevedo  in  a 
Castillian  lyric  of  a  very  different  cast,  in  which  some 
bantering  praise  is  thus  given  to  Torriano  :  — 

"  Flamenco  dicen  que  fue 
Y  sorbedor  de  lo  paro  ; 
Muy  mal  con  el  agua  estaba 
Que  en  tal  trabajo  la  puso."  t 

"  Juanelo,  'tis  clear,  was  fond  of  his  beer, 

And  drank  his  schnaps  neat,  like  a  Fleming'; 
No  weakness  or  whim,  for  water,  in  him 
The  lymph  to  such  labors  condemning !  " 

The  Tagus  stream,  however,  soon  rested  from  its 
labors  ;  for  the  mechanism  falling  to  decay  was  never 
repaired ;  and  Toledo  returned  to  her  old  Tantalus 
state-,  and  that  simpler  hydraulic  machinery,  of  mules 
and  water-jars,  to  which  she  still  adheres.  A  few 
ruined  brick  arches  on  the  right  bank  of  the  river, 
below  the  bridge,  and  immediately  beneath  the  towers 
of  the  alcazar,  are  the  sole  remains  of  the  work  of  the 
ingenious  Lombard.     He  was  afterwards  engaged  at 

*  Morales :  Anlig.  de  Espana,  fol.  92. 

t  Ilinerario  desde   Madrid  b,  su  Torre,   Obras,  3   torn.,  4to,  Brussels, 
1600-1.    Poesias,  p.  420. 


296  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

Madrid,  in  making  some  draw-wells  on  an  improved 
principle.  But  Toledo  continued  to  be  his  home,  and 
he  died  there,  leaving  a  daughter  behind  him,  in  1585, 
and  was  buried  in  the  convent  of  the  Carmen.  The 
street  in  which  he  lived  is  still  called  "  the  street  of 
the  wooden  man,"  "  calle  del  hombre  de  palo"  in 
memory,  says  tradition,  of  a  puppet,  of  his  making, 
which  used  to  walk  daily  to  the  archiepiscopal  palace, 
and  return  ladcR  with  allowance  of  bread  and  meat, 
after  doing  ceremonious  obeisance  to  the  donor.*  The 
city  of  Toledo  honored  Torriano  with  a  medal,  bear- 
ing his  head,  shaggy,  bearded,  and  stern ;  on  the  re- 
verse was  a  gushing  fountain,  supported  on  the  head 
of  a  nymph,  and  surrounded  by  thirsty  ancients,  with 
the  inscription,  virtvs  .  nvnqvam  .  deficit,  the  mech- 
anician's favorite  motto.  His  bust,  finely  executed 
in  marble,  perhaps  by  Berruguete,  still  adorns  the 
cabinet  of  natural  history  in  the  archbishop's  palace 
at  Toledo.f  His  portrait,  inscribed  with  his  name 
and  the  medal  motto,  likewise  hangs  in  the  smaller 
cloister  of  the  Escorial.J 

Father  Borja  continued  to  preach,  teach,  and  travel 
with  unflagging  zeal  and  remarkable  success.  Soon 
after  pronouncing  the  emperor's  funeral  sermon,  he 
was  again  in  Portugal,  visiting  his  colleges  at  Evora, 
Coimbra,  Braga,  and  Porto,  and  negotiating  for  the 
princess  of  Brazil  in  the  affair  of  the  regency.  His 
holiness  and  his  catholic  enthusiasm  did  not,  however, 
protect  him  from  suspicions  of  heresy  in  the  reform 
panic  which  overspread  the  court  and  church  of  Spain. 

*  Ponz  :  Vtage,  I.  161,  162,  where  the  medal  is  engraved. 

t  J.  Amador  de  los  Kios  :  Toledo  Pintoresca,  8vo,  Madrid,  1845,  p.  201. 

i  Descripcion  del  Escorial,  sm.  8vo,   Madrid,  1843,  p  225. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  297 

He  had  communicated,  it  was  said,  with  Fray  Do- 
mingo de  Roxas,  and  he  was  summoned  by  arch- 
bishop Carranza  to  bear  witness  on  his  behalf  before 
the  Inquisition.  Reports  injurious  to  his  orthodoxy 
and  to  that  of  the  company  for  a  while  shook  Borja's 
credit  with  the  king ;  and  they  certainly  obtained  for 
him  the  ill-will  of  the  inquisitor  Valdes,  and  for  a 
little  devotional  treatise,  which  he  had  written  many 
years  before,  a  place  in  that  prelate's  famous  cata- 
logue  of  prohibited  books.  That  such  imputations 
should  have  been  cast  on  an  order  of  which  the  first 
rule  was  unqualified  submission  to  the  holy  see,  well 
exemplifies  the  blind  fury  of  polemic  war,  in  which 
men  who  confound  friends  with  foes  pretend  to  judge 
of  the  subtile  distinctions  between  speculative  truth 
and  error. 

Out  of  Spain,  however,  the  fame  of  Borja  was  un- 
tarnished, and  his  influence  unshaken.  Called  to 
Rome  by  pope  Pius  the  Fourth,  to  advise  on  the 
affairs  of  the  church,  he  was  twice  chosen  vicar-gen- 
eral of  the  company,  and  finally,  on  the  death  of 
Laynez,  in  1567,  received  the  staff  of  Loyola.  Dur- 
ing his  vigorous  rule  of  seven  years,  the  company 
lengthened  its  cords  and  strengthened  its  stakes  in 
every  part  of  the  globe,  and  in  every  order  and  con- 
dit^jpn  of  mankind.  Jesuit  politicians  gained  the 
ear  of  princes  and  prelates  who  had  hitherto  re- 
garded the  society  with  coldness  or  enmity ;  Jesuit 
scholars  and  thinkers,  no  less  elegant  than  profound, 
spoke  through  the  press  in  every  language  of  Europe  ; 
Jesuit  colleges,  presided  over  by  teachers  the  ablest 
that  the  world  had  yet  seen,  arose  amid  the  snows  of 
Poland  and  the  forests  of  Peru;    Barbary,  Florida, 


298  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

and  Brazil  were  watered  with  the  blood  of  Jesuit  mar- 
tyrs ;  and  Jesuit  ministers  of  mercy  moved  amid  the 
roar  of  battle  on  the  bastions  of  Malta  and  the  decks 
of  Lepanto.  Never  was  discipline  so  perfect  as  in 
the  ranks  of  the  company ;  never  were  the  minds  of 
many  so  skilfully  combined  into  a  single  intellectual 
machine,  developing  the  powers  of  all,  yet  moved  by 
the  will  of  one.  Like  Ignatius,  Borja  brought  to  his 
religious  command  much  of  his  old  military  spirit ; 
and  his  addresses  to  his  followers  were  frequently 
illustrated  by  images  such  as  might  have  presented 
themselves  to  Gonsalvo  or  Alba.  "  Let  the  preacher," 
says  he,  in  his  excellent  rules  for  the  composition  and 
delivery  of  a  sermon,  "  think  himself  a  mere  piece  of 
artillery,  with  which  God  is  to  batter  and  overthrow 
the  proud  walls  of  Babylon,  and  his  own  part  of  the 
business  nothing  but  the  lump  of  iron  or  brass,  cold 
and  heavy,  and  the  dirty  powder,  black  and  of  ill  savor, 
and  of  none  effect  until  it  is  touched  with  the  fire  of 
the  Holy  Spirit."  *  In  spite  of  the  duties  of  his  com- 
mand, he  himself  continued  in  person  to  batter  the 
walls  of  Babylon,  both  from  the  pulpit  and  with  the 
pen  ;  his  sermons  and  his  treatises,  collected  after  his 
death,  filling  a  folio  of  goodly  dimensions. 

The  general  of  Jesus  visited  Spain  for  the  last  time 
in  1571,  being  specially  sent  thither  by  pope  Pius^e 
Fifth  as  the  companion  of  the  cardinal-legate  who 
was  commissioned  to  preach  a  new  crusade  against 
the  Turk  in  the  courts  of  Western  Christendom.  From 
the  moment  when  Borja  stepped  ashore  at  Barcelona 
his  progress  was  a  perpetual  triumph.     His  son  Fer- 

*  Tratado  para  los  predicadores.    Bibadeneira:    Vida  de  F.  Borja, 
p.  233. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  299 

nando  received  him  with  autograph  letters  of  welcome 
from  the  king  and  cardinal  Espinosa ;  his  former 
subjects,  the  turbulent  Catalonians,  flocked  in  crowds 
to  crave  his  blessing;  at  Valencia,  his  eldest  son,  the 
duke  of  Gandia,  met  him  at  the  gates  with  the  flower 
of  the  Valencian  nobility ;  at  Madrid  he  held  an  in- 
fant of  Spain  at  the  baptismal  font;  and  he  was 
treated  by  the  king,  not  only  as  an  old  and  trusted 
counsellor,  but  with  the  honor  due  to  a  bearer  of  a 
morsel  of  the  true  cross,  presented  by  the  pope  -to  the 
splendid  reliquary  of  the  Escorial.  Of  the  offers  of 
new  houses  for  the  company  which  now  poured  in, 
the  last  which  Borja  accepted  was  that  of  Dona  Mag- 
dalena  de  UUoa  to  build  a  college  at  Villagarcia,  a 
pious  work  in  which  he  found,  after  many  days,  the 
bread  which  he  had  cast  upon  the  waters  at  Yuste. 
In  Portugal  the  usual  honors  awaited  him  ;  the  young 
king,  Sebastian,  imploring  his  benediction,  and  the 
cardinal-infant,  Henry,  busying  himself  about  the  re- 
pair of  his  travel-worn  wardrobe.  In  France,  Charles 
the  Ninth,  forsaking  for  a  day  the  chase  of  Chambord, 
led  the  gallant  cavalcade  which  met  the  Jesuit  father 
beyond  the  walls  of  Blois  ;  and  Catherine  of  Medicis, 
seating  the  stranger  at  her  side,  begged  for  his  rosary 
as  a  relic,  and  reverently  listened  to  his  exhortations 
to  the  extinction  of  heresy  and  heretics,  exhortations 
which  she  so  signally  obeyed,  a  few  months  later,  on 
the  night  of  St.  Bartholomew.  During  his  progress 
from  court  to  court,  and  from  castle  to  castle,  Borja 
led  the  rigid  life  of  a  mendicant  friar,  fasting  at  royal 
banquets,  and  sleeping  at  night  on  the  floors  of  tapes- 
tried chambers.  He  suffered  no  day  to  pass  without 
saying  mass ;  and  it  w^as  during  the  performance  of 


300  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

this  rite  on  a  cold  winter's  morning,  in  a  church  lately 
sacked  by  the  Huguenots,  that  the  seeds  of  deadly 
disease  were  sown  in  his  enfeebled  frame.  The  icy 
air  of  Mont  Cenis  accelerated  the  progress  of  the  dis- 
order, and  he  lay  almost  in  a  dying  state,  for  some 
days  at  Turin  and  for  some  months  at  Ferrara,  under 
the  care  of  the  princes  of  Savoy  and  of  Este.  Rallying 
somewhat  in  the  summer  of  1572,  he  proceeded  to 
Loretto  to  pay  his  last  devotions  at  Our  Lady's  shrine. 
Thenee,  feeling  the  hand  of  death  upon  him,  he  hur- 
ried forward  to  Rome,  travelling  night  and  day,  with- 
out moving  from  his  litter.  For  two  days  after  his 
arrival  at  the  house  of  the  company,  his  bedchamber 
was  besieged  by  ambassadors,  anxious  to  do  honor  to 
the  friend  of  their  sovereigns,  and  by  cardinals  desir- 
ous of  taking  leave  of  him  whom  they  once  thought 
of  placing  in  the  chair  of  St.  Peter.  On  the  third 
day  the  Roman  populace  crowded  to  the  church  of 
the  Jesuits  to  see  the  general  laid  beside  his  compan- 
ions in  glory  and  toil,  and  his  predecessors  in  power, 
Loyola  and  Laynez. 

The  company  of  Jesus  and  the  house  of  Borja  soon 
discovered  that  their  dead  chief,  a  saint  amongst 
grandees,  was  likewise  a  grandee  amongst  saints.  His 
prayers,  they  alleged,  had  restored  health  to  the  sick, 
sight  to  the  blind,  and  teeth  to  the  toothless ;  and 
father  Bustamente,  in  one  of  their  mountain  marches, 
falling  with  his  mule  over  a  precipice,  had  reached 
the  bottom  unhurt,  by  virtue  of  the  intercession  of  his 
companion.  Relics  and  images  of  him  grew  potent 
in  cases  of  fever  and  childbirth,  flesh  wounds  and 
heart  disease ;  earthquakes,  both  in  Italy  and  New 
Spain,  were  assuaged  by  his  invocation  ;  and  his  por- 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  301 

trait,  in  a  village  church  of  New  Granada,  sweated 
for  twenty-one  days  shortly  before  the  death  of  the 
viceroy,  who  was  a  Borja,  and  during  some  persecution 
which  the  company  was  sustaining  at  Madrid.  One 
of  the  Jesuit's  bones  relieved  the  parturient  pangs  of 
the  duchess  of  Uzeda  ;  another  cured  the  ague  of  the 
pious  queen  Margaret.  Pleading  these  portents,  his 
grandson,  the  cardinal-duke  of  Lerma,  applied,  in 
1615,  to  pope  Paul  the  Fifth  for  his  canonization  ;  and 
his  claim  being  examined  and  the  devil's  advocate 
heard  with  all  the  grave  impartiality  of  the  church,  a 
brief  of  beatification  was  issued,  in  1624,  by  pope 
Urban  the  Eighth.  One  of  the  saint's  arms  was  left 
at  Rome,  the  rest  of  his  body  was  removed  to  Ma- 
drid, and  exposed,  in  a  silver  shrine  beneath  lamps  of 
silver,  to  the  adoration  of  the  faithful  in  the  church  of 
the  company. 

ArchbLshop  Carranza  went  from  Yuste  to  Toledo, 
and  devoted  the  remainder  of  1558  and  the  first  six 
months  of  1559  in  the  duties  of  his  high  calling. 
Meanwhile,  his  enemy,  the  inquisitor  Valdes,  was 
leaving  no  stone  unturned  to  establish  a  case  of  heresy 
against  him.  Soon  after  his  appointment  to  the  pri- 
macy, Carranza  had  published,  at  Antwerp,  a  folio 
catechism  of  Christianity,  or  an  account  of  ail  that 
is  professed  in  receiving  the  sacrament  of  baptism.* 

*  Comentarios  del  reverendissimo  Senor  Frai  Barihdome  Carranqa  de 
Miranda,  Arqobispo  de  Toledo,  sobre  el  Catechismo  Christiana,  fol.,  Anvers  : 
1558.  This  book  was  so  rigidlj-  suppressed  by  the  Inquisition,  that,  not- 
withstanding its  fame  as  the  cause  of  the  archbishop's  trial,  it  has  not 
been  mentioned  by  Bninet.  I  bought  my  copy  at  the  sale  of  the  library 
of  the  late  canon  Riego,  who  was  also  a  dealer  in  books,  and  whose  note 
in  the  fly  leaf,  on  the  excessive  rarity  of  the  volume,  thus  concludes : 
"  Su  precio  de  este  examplar  dos  onzas  de  oro  o  sets  guineas" 
26 


4 
-3. 


302  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

To  the  Protestant,  who  in  these  days  looks  into  this 
very  rare  and  still  more  tedious  volume,  the  work  ap- 
pears to  breathe  the  fiercest  spirit  of  intolerant  Ro- 
manism. Heresy  is  reprobated ;  Bibles  in  the  vulgar 
tongue  are  condemned  ;  Spain  is  praised  as  the  one 
land  where  the  fountain  of  truth  is  still  unpolluted ; 
Philip  the  Second  is  exhorted  to  further  persecutions ; 
Mary  Tudor  is  extolled  as  the  saviour  of  the  soul  of 
England.  "  In  these  dangerous  times,"  says  the  pre- 
late, in  his  dedication  to  the  king,  "  when  heretics  are 
so  zealous  in  propagating  error,  it  behoves  Catholics 
to  make  some  exertions  in  the  cause  of  truth  ;  at  the 
request  of  several  churches  of  Spain,  I  have  therefore 
composed  this  work  in  Castillian  for  the  use  of  private 
persons,  and  I  shall  shortly  translate  it  into  Latin  for 
the  benefit  of  other  countries,  especially  of  England." 
Yet  this  was  the  book  in  which  the  sharp-eyed  in- 
quisitor contrived  to  find  materials  sufficient  for  the 
ruin  of  his  rival.  The  rack,  which  often  agonized  its 
victims  into  the  wildest  accusations  against  them- 
selves, easily  obtained  a  large  mass  of  evidence  against 
the  primate  from  heretics  who  pretended  that  he  was 
the  author  or- the  accomplice  of  their  sins  against  the 
true  faith.  Hope  or  fear  also  brought  many  free  aux- 
iliaries to  the  councils  of  the  inquisitor ;  and  many  a 
friar  in  the  habit  of  St.  Jerome  or  St.  Francis  was 
ready  to  join  in  a  cry  against  the  Dominican  who  had 
secured  the  mitre  of  Toledo.  To  be  armed  against 
all  chances,  Valdes  procured  the  ratification,  by  pope 
Pius  the  Fourth,  of  his  predecessor's  briefs,  which  em- 
powered the  Inquisition  to  arrest  even  prelates  who 
were  suspected  of  heresy. 

The  snare  being  thus  laid,  the  princess-regent,  who 


THE    EMPEROR   CHARLES    THE    FIFTH. 


303 


had  resigned  herself  entirely  to  the  influence  of  Valdes, 
summoned  the  archbishop  to  court  in  the  summer  of 
1559 ;  and  the  familiars  of  the  holy  office  arrested 
him,  at  night  and  in  his  bed,  at  a  village  on  the  road 
to  Valladolid.  He  had  for  some  time  foreseen  the 
storm,  and  he  put  his  whole  trust  in  the  friendly  dis- 
position of  the  king.  Philip,  however,  from  some 
cause  which  is  still  a  mystery,  was  now  eager  to  abase 
the  man  upon  whom  he  had  so  lately  thrust  greatness. 
When  brought  before  the  holy  office,  Carranza  refused 
to  be  judged  by  Valdes,  alleging  the  notorious  per- 
sonal animosity  with  which  that  prelate  regarded 
him.  The  matter  being  referred  to  the  pope,  he  a:u- 
thorized  the  king  to  choose  a  new  judge ;  Philip  chose 
the  archbishop  of  Santiago,  who  must  have  been  in 
the  interest  of  Valdes ;  for  he,  in  his  turn,  devolved 
his  powers  on  two  councillors  of  the  Inquisition,  mere 
tools  and  creatures  of  their  chief.  Advised  by  his  ad- 
vocate that  it  was  useless  to  appeal  against  injustice 
so  manifest  and  wilful,  Carranza  permitted  the  trial 
to  proceed ;  and  at  first  he  had  some  hope  of  an  ac- 
quittal, on  the  ground  that  his  book  had  been  declared 
orthodox  by  commissioners  appointed  to  examine  it 
by  the  council  of  Trent.  His  enemies,  however,  had 
the  art  to  prevent  the  opinion  of  the  commission  from 
being  ratified  by  the  council,  although  they  failed  in 
obtaining  a  decree  of  condemnation,  and  although 
eleven  dignitaries  of  the  church  expressed  their  appro- 
bation of  the  catechism.  At  length  Carranza  ap- 
pealed to  pope  Pius.  But  he,  instead  of  trying  the 
cause  himself,  was  persuaded  by  the  king  to  send  for 
the  purpose  a  legate  and  two  other  judges  to  Spain. 
Pius,  however,  died  soon  afterwards,  and  his  successor 


304  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OP 

insisted  that  the  trial  should  be  adjourned  to  Rome. 
Pius  the  Fifth,  an  honest  man,  though  a  bigot,  re- 
membered the  good  service  which  had  been  done  by 
Carranza  in  England,  and  was  indignant  at  the  in- 
justice with  which  he  was  treated  by  the  Inquisition 
and  his  sovereign.  When,  therefore,  he  had  succeeded, 
in  the  teeth  of  Philip,  in  bringing  both  parties  before 
him  in  1567,  he  took  every  occasion  of  mortifying  the 
accusing  inquisitors,  the  deputies  of  Valdes ;  and  he 
would  probably  have  decided  in  favor  of  the  prisoner. 
But  he,  too,  was  called  to  his  account  before  pronoun- 
cing sentence;  and  the  case  was  re-opened  before 
Gregory  the  Thirteenth.  This  pontiff  was  equally 
unwilling  to  condemn  the  prelate  or  to  displease  the 
king.  In  a  long  and  ambiguous  judgment,  drawn  up 
in  1576,  he  therefore  took  a  middle  course,  very  differ- 
ent from  that  which  the  king  desired,  and  from  that 
which  justice  dictated.  The  catechism  was  declared 
to  contain  sixteen  heretical  propositions,  which  the 
author  was  required  publicly  to  abjure;  and  while  he 
was  relieved  from  all  previous  ecclesiastical  censures, 
he  was  suspended,  during  the  pope's  pleasure,  from 
his  preferment,  and  ordered  to  perform  certain  pen- 
ances, and  sentenced  to  five  years'  imprisonment  in 
the  Dominican  convent  at  Orvietto.  The  sufferings 
endured  by  the  Spanish  primate  met  with  great  sym- 
pathy at  Rome.  "When  the  pope's  decision  was 
known,  he  at  once  proceeded  to  perform  part  of  his 
penance  by  visiting  the  seven  basilicas ;  and  he  was 
attended  by  so  splendid  a  retinue  of  friends,  that  this 
humiliation  wore  the  appearance  of  a  triumph.  But 
long  imprisonment  at  Valladolid,  and  in  the  castle  of 
St.  Angelo,  had  broken  his  health  and  enfeebled  his 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  305 

constitution.  The  unwonted  excitement  and  exer- 
tion, therefore,  produced  an  attack  of  inflammation, 
of  which  he  died  on  the  2d  of  May,  1576,  in  the  con- 
vent of  Minerva.  He  was  buried  with  great  pomp  in 
the  conventual  church,  and  the  pope  made  a  wretched 
atonement  for  his  injustice,  by  inscribing  his  tomb 
with  an  epitaph  in  which  he  was  praised  as  a  man 
illustrious  by  his  lineage,  his  life,  his  almsdeeds,  his 
eloquence,  and  his  doctrine.  His  sad  and  anxious 
countenance,  tolerably  painted  by  Luis  de  Carbajal, 
appears  among  the  portraits  of  the  primates  in  the 
winter  chapter- room  at  Toledo. 

While  suffering  in  prison  the  sickness  of  deferred 
hope,  the  unhappy  prelate  may  perhaps  have  lamented 
that  he  had  reached  Yuste  too  late  to  explain  to  the 
emperor  the  circumstances  of  his  promotion,  and  to 
learn  and  remove  the  suspicions  which  had  been  cast 
upon  his  faith.  This  was  the  mischance  which  marked 
the  ebb  of  his  fortune.  It  is  impossible  to  conjecture 
the  cause  which  turned  ^e  esteem  of  Philip  the 
Second  into  hatred  so  bitter  and  unrelenting.*  The 
scandal  and  inconvenience  of  having  his  primate  even 
suspected  of  heresy  in  the  midst  of  a  reform  panic  was 
so  great  and  glaring,  that  his  natural  course  would 
have  been  to  hush  the  matter  up,  even  had  he  believed 
the  charge.  But  the  charge  was  untenable,  and  sup- 
ported by  evidence  that  would  have  been  admitted 
only  before  a  tribunal  of  unscrupulous  enemies.  The 
single  expression  which  a  cursory  perusal  of  the  cate- 
chism has  enabled   me  to  detect  as   being  likely  to 


*  It  was  known  to  Antonio  Perez,  who  says  he  had  stated  it  in  one  of 
his  twelve  memorials,  which  are  unfortunately  lost. 
26* 


306  THE    CLOISTER   LIFE    OF 

alarm  those  who  benefited  by  supporting  every  exist- 
ing abuse,  is  the  prelate's  desire  "  to  resuscitate  the 
ancient  belief  of  the  primitive  church  and  the  wisest 
and  purest  age,"  *  —  a  desire  alleged  by  all  religious 
reformers,  from  the  brave  men  of  Germany,  who  burst 
the  bonds  of  spiritual  tyranny,  to  the  triflers  of  our 
own  day  in  England,  who  wage  puny  war  about 
bowings  and  kneelings  and  flowers,  the  mechanism 
and  the  millinery  of  worship.  It  may  be  that  Carran- 
za's  printed  theology  contains  (what  theology  does 
not?)  passages  capable  of  an  interpretation  neither 
intended  nor  foreseen  by  the  writer.  It  may  be  that 
he  helped  himself  to  ideas  or  phrases  from  Lutheran 
books,  whose  authors  he  would  willingly  have  burnt  • 
just  as  the  inquisitor  Torquemada  sent  sorcerers  to 
the  stake,  yet  protected  himself  from  poison  by  keep- 
ing a  piece  of  unicorn's  horn  on  his  table.  Yet  the 
historian  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition  was  unable  to 
find  in  the  catechism  any  one  of  the  sixteen  proposi- 
tions, upon  which  the  po^  pronounced  sentence  of 
condemnation,  —  a  sentence  wrung  from  the  pontiff, 
with  much  difficulty,  even  by  the  immense  influence 
of  the  crown  of  Spain.  It  is  certain  that  Carranza 
for  the  greater  part  of  his  life  had  been  a  divine  of 
approved  orthodoxy,  and  a  preacher  of  high  reputa- 
tion ;  that  both  in  England  and  the  Netherlands  he 
had  been  a  vigilant  shepherd  of  the  faithful  and  un- 
sparing butcher  of  heretics ;  and  that  one  of  his  first 
acts  as  primate  was  to  advise  the  king  to  appropriate 
the  revenues  of  one  canonry  in  every  cathedral  of 
Spain  to  the  use  of  the  Inquisition.     It  seems,  there- 

*  Catechismo,  Prologo,  fol.  2. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  307 

fore,  but  reasonable  to  believe  that  he  spoke  the  plain 
truth  when  he  made  his  dying  declaration  that  he  had 
never  held  any  of  the  heretical  opinions  of  which  he 
had  been  accused.* 

In  memory  of  the  emperor,  the  monastery  of  Yuste 
was  dignified  with  the  title  of  royal.  Philip  the  Sec- 
ond confirmed  its  privileges  in  1562,  and  honored  it  in 
1570  with  a  visit  of  two  days.  As  he  approached  the 
precincts,  he  stopped  his  coach,  in  order  to  read  the 
inscription  which  the  monks,  or  perhaps  Quixada,  had 
caused  to  be  carved  beneath  the  imperial  arms  upon 
the  corner-stone  of  the  garden  wall :  — 

"  In  this  holy  house  of  St.  Jerome  of  Yuste  was 
ended  in  retirement  the  life,  spent  in  defending  the 
faith  and  maintaining  justice,  of  Charles  the  Fifth, 
emperor,  king  of  the  Spains,  most  Christian  and 
most  invincible.  He  died  on  the  21st  of  September, 
1558."  t 

On  the  wall  of  the  open  gallery,  on  the  west  side 
of  the  palace,  the  following  inscription  records  the 
exact  date  when  the  emperor,  sitting  there,  was  first 
attacked  by  the  illness  which  carried  him  to  the 
grave :  — 

"  His  majesty  the  emperor,  Don  Charles  the  Fifth, 
our  lord,  was  seated  in  this  place  when  his  malady 

*  Don  Adolfo  de  Castro  considers  Carranza  a  Protestant,  and  com- 
bats the  position  of  Llorente,  but  without  showing  that  any  one  of  the 
sixteen  propositions  are  found  in  the  catechism,  or  in  any  other  way,  as 
it  appears  to  me,  proving  what  he  asserts.  Sixinish  Protestants,  pp.  126 
to  189. 

t  En  esta  santa  casa  de  Hieronimo  de  Yuste  se  retiro  a  acabar  su 
vida,  el  que  toda  la  gasto  en  defensa  de  la  fe,  y  conservacion  de  la  jus- 
ticia,  Carlos  V.  craperador,  rey  de  las  Espafias,  Christianissimo,  invic- 
tissimo.    Murio  a  21  de  Setiembrc  de  1558. 


308  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

seized  him  on  the  31st  of  August,  at  four  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon ;  he  died  on  the  21st  of  September,  at 
half  past  two  in  the  morning,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
1558."  * 

Out  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  his  sire,  Philip 
would  not  sleep  in  the  room  where  the  emperor  died, 
but  occupied  an  adjoining  closet,  so  small  that  there 
was  hardly  room  for  a  camp-bed.f  He  presented  the 
fraternity  with  some  relics  and  a  gilt  cup  ;  and  he 
provided  them  with  an  exact  copy  of  the  "  Glory  "  of 
Titian,  which  he  had  removed  from  their  altar  to  the 
hall  of  the  Escorial  where  the  monks  assembled  to 
hear  Scripture  readings.  A  new  altar  and  architec- 
tural decorations  were  also  designed  for  Yuste,  by 
Juan  de  Herrera,  the  architect  of  the  Escorial,  and 
finished  in  1583,  by  Juan  de  Segura.  Some  further 
statues  and  embellishments,  which  were  probably 
disfigurements,  were  added  by  Juan  Gomez  de  Mora, 
in  the  reign  of  Philip  the  Third. J  The  top  was 
adorned  with  the  imperial  eagle  of  Hapsburg,  and  the 
armorial  bearings  of  the  emperor ;  bearings  which  the 

*  Sa  magestad  cl  emperador  don  Carlos  quinto  nuestro  seiior,  en  este 
lugar  estava  Jasentado  quando  le  dio  el  mal,  a  los  treinta  y  uno  de 
Agosto  a  las  quatro  de  la  tarde  ;  fallecio  a  los  21  de  Setiembre  a  los  dos 
y  media  de  la  manana  alio  de  No.  Sr.,  1558. 

t  These  particulars  are  mostly  taken  from  the  HandlA>ok  of  Spain, 
1845,  p.  552,  and  from  the  notes  made  on  the  spot  by  Mr.  Ford,  from  the 
MS.  book  of  Documents,  written  by  Fr.  Luis  de  Sta.  Maria  in  1620,  and 
shown  to  him  by  the  prior  in  1832.  The  Abbe  St.  Real,  in  his  dull 
Don  Carlos,  Nouvelle  Historique  ((Euvres,  8  vol.,  12mo,  Paris,  1757, 
Vol.  v.),  most  absurdly  makes  Yuste  the  scene  of  the  imaginary  loves  of 
Carlos  and  Queen  Isabella.  The  book  was  written  in  1672,  and  trans- 
lated into  English  "by  H.  I.,  12mo,  London,  1674,"  as  a  piece  of  authen- 
tic history  ;  and,  more  extraordinary  still,  was  cited  as  such  by  Bayle, 
art.  Charles  V. 

X  Ponz  :   Viagc,  VII.  136. 


THE 'EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  309 

monks  also  planted  in  box  in  the  centre  of  their  prin- 
cipal cloister. 

In  the  year  1638  the  palace  underwent  a  complete 
repair,  by  order  of  Philip  the  Fourth,  and  at  a  cost  of 
six  thousand  ducats.* 

Until  the  present  century,  Yuste  lacked  not  a  due 
succession  of  Jeromite  fathers.  Neither  in  the  days 
of  Charles,  nor  in  subsequent  times,  were  its  worthies, 
who  are  commemorated  in  the  history  of  the  order, 
men  of  sufficient  mark  to  impress  their  names  upon 
any  mere  secular  record.  Content  to  mortify  their 
bodies,  they  made  little  or  no  use  of  their  minds. 
Only  a  few  appear  to  have  deviated  from  the  beaten 
track  of  even  monkish  mediocrity.  Fray  Antonio  de 
Belvis  was  popular  as  an  orator  in  the  pulpits  of  An- 
dalusia. Fray  Juan  de  los  Santos  evinced  sufficient 
taste  for  study  to  be  sent  by  the  community  to  the 
college  of  Siguenca.  Ill  health,  however,  cut  short 
his  academical  career,  and  he  returned  to  Yuste  to 
dress  vines,  and  to  tend  the  sick,  a  work  of  mercy  to 
which  he  fell  a  sacrifice,  dying  of  the  fever  of  which 
he  had  signally  cured  one  of  his  brethren.  At  the 
Escorial,  Fray  Bernardino  d^Salinas  became  a  favor- 
ite of  Philip  the  Second;  and  Fray  Miguel  de  Ala- 
exos  enjoyed  the  dignity  of  prior  from  1582  to  1589. 
One  monk  was  distinguished  as  a  leader  of  the  choir ; 
another  as  an  instructor  of  the  novices ;  and  a  third 
obtained  honorable  notice  as  an  agriculturalist  by  cer- 
tain improvements  effected  on  the  conventual  farm  of 
Valmorisco.  Some  were  revered  for  benefactions  to 
the  house ;  others  for  their  austerities ;  and  a  few  for 

*  Valparaiso  MS.    See  page  220,  note. 


310  THE    CLOISTER   LIFE    OF 

the  visions  which  had  brightened  or  darkened  their 
cells.  Strangers  were  desired  to  observe  the  silver 
candlesticks  of  the  altar,  and  the  manuscript  book  of 
the  choir,  the  gift  of  Fray  Christobal,  or  the  work  of 
Fray  Luis ;  and  they  were  told  how  father  Paul  had 
scaled  the  steep  of  spiritual  perfections  by  making  a 
ladder  his  nightly  couch ;  and  how  father  Christopher 
resigned  his  meek  spirit  into  the  real  and  visible  hands 
of  Our  Blessed  Lady. 

Don  Antonio  Ponz,  the  laborious  traveller,  and  long 
the  traveller's  best  guide  in  Spain,  visited  Yuste  about 
1780,  and  was  lodged  in  the  palace  of  the  emperor. 
He  remarked  in  the  church  two  pictures  of  Our  Lord, 
bearing  the  cross,  and  crowned  with  thorns,  which  the 
friars  attributed  to  a  painter  brought  to  Spain  by 
queen  Mary  of  Hungary.  Some  years  before,  the 
Vera  had  suffered  greatly  by  a  plague  of  caterpillars 
which  had  killed  many  of  the  chestnut-trees,  and  by 
accidental  fires  which  had  charred  whole  tracts  of  the 
forest.  The  famine  thus  produced  had  much  dimin- 
ished the  population,  and  the  owners  of  the  soil  were 
endeavoring  to  restore  prosperity  by  encouraging  agri- 
culture and  the  growth  of  silk. 

Early  in  the  present  "ntury,  Yuste  was  visited  by 
M.  Alexandre  Laborde,  the  well-known  French  travel- 
ler, and  became  the  subject  of  an  inaccurate  sketch 
and  ground  plan  by  M.  Liger,  his  artist,  and  of  a 
meagre  description  by  himself.* 

*  A.  Laborde :  Voyage  Pittoresque  et  Historique  (TEspagne,  2  vol. 
(2  parts  in  each),  fol.,  Paris,  1806,  Vol.  I.  2'""  Partie,  p.  118.  His 
view  has  been  reproduced  in  a  wood-cut  in  Jubinal's  Armeria  Real  de 
Madrid,  II.  p.  111.  There  is  also  a  wretched  wood-cut  view  of  the 
"  palacio  "  of  Yuste,  with  letter-press  still  more  absurd,  in  the  Semanario 
Pintoresco  Espanoi,  No.  38,  18th  December,  1836,  p.  312. 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  311 

It  was  the  war  of  independence  which  began  the 
ruin  of  the  fair  home  of  the  monarch  and  the  monk. 
In  1809,  the  Vera  of  Plasencia,  like  the  rest  of  Estre- 
madura,  was  in  the  hands  of  the  French,  under  Soult. 
The  first  foraging  party  who  visited  Yuste  did  no 
harm ;  but  the  next  comers,  a  body  of  two  hundred 
dragoons,  finding  a  dead  Frenchman  near  the  convent 
gate,  broke  in  and  sacked  the  place.  The  buildings 
were  set  on  fire  on  the  9th  of  August,  and  continued 
to  burn  for  eight  days.  All  the  archives  of  the  house 
were  destroyed,  but  a  single  folio  volume  of  notes 
and  documents,  written  in  1620,  by  Fray  Luis  de  Sta. 
Maria,  w^hich  the  prior  happened  to  be  consulting 
about  some  rights  disputed  by  the  peasants  of  Qua- 
cos,  when  the  Frenchmen  burst  in,  and  which  he 
saved  by  throwing  into  a  thicket  in  the  garden.  The 
church  was  saved  from  destruction  by  its  massive 
walls  and  vaulted  roof,  and  it  was  likewise  the  means 
of  protecting  the  palace  and  a  portion  of  the  cloister. 
Here  some  of  the  friars  continued  to  dwell,  and  in  the 
spring  of  1813  they  had  the  honor  of  receiving  an 
English  traveller,  perhaps  the  first  who  had  set  foot 
within  their  precincts  since  the  courier  who  came  to 
complain  to  Charles  the  Fifth  of  the  dilatory  habits 
of  the  ministry  at  Valladolid.*  Certain  it  is,  that 
since  the  time  when  Avila  and  Sepulveda  discussed 
the  literature  of  the  day  with  Van  Male,  and  Ruy 
Gomez  and  Garcilasso  discoursed  on  affairs  of  state 
with  the  emperor,  Yuste  had  received  no  statesman 
or  man  of  letters  so  distinguished  as  Lord  John 
Russell. 

*  Chap.  V.  p.  113. 


312  THE    CLOISTER    LIFE    OF 

The  brief  triumph  of  the  constitutionalists  in  1820 
was  a  signal  for  the  first  dispersion  of  the  friars. 
During  the  vacancy  of  the  monastery,  the  work  of 
destruction  went  on  briskly.  The  few  vases  belong- 
ing to  the  dispensary  of  Charles  the  Fifth  which  had 
escaped  the  French,  were  carried  off  by  one  Morales, 
an  apothecary  of  liberal  opinions,  to  his  shop  at  Xa- 
randilla.  The  patriots  of  Texeda  helped  themselves 
to  the  copy  of  the  "  Glory  "  of  Titian,  and  hung  it  in 
their  parish  church.  The  palace  was  utterly  gutted, 
and  the  church  was  used  as  a  stable. 

When  the  arras  of  the  holy  alliance  had  once  more 
placed  the  crown  and  the  cowl  in  the  ascendant,  a 
handful  of  picturesque  drones  again  gathered  at  their 
pleasant  hive  of  Yuste.  They  feebly  and  partially 
restored  it,  patching  up  the  offices  formerly  occupied 
by  the  emperor's  servants  into  some  cells  and  a  refec- 
tory. But  they  were  unable  to  raise  money  enough 
to  pay  for  bringing  their  altar-piece  back  from  Texe- 
da. Mr.  Ford,  best  of  travellers,  was  one  of  the  last 
of. their  visitors,  passing  a  pleasant  May-day  with 
them  in  1832,  and  sleeping  at  night  in  the  chamber 
of  the  emperor.  The  monks  were  about  twelve  in 
number,  and  amongst  them  was  a  patriarch,  Fray 
Alonso  Cavallero,  who  had  taken  the  cowl  at  Yuste, 
in  1778,  and  remembered  Ponz  and  his  visit.  "  The 
good-natured,  garrulous  brotherhood"  accompanied 
the  stranger  in  his  ramble  about  the  ruined  buildings 
and  gardens;  in  the  evening  he  supped  with  the  prior 
and  procurator  in  an  alcove,  overlooking  the  lovely 
Vera,  and  sweet  and  melodious  with  the  scent  of 
thyme  and  the  song  of  nightingales  ;  and  at  dawn,  on 


THE    EMPEROR    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH.  313 

the  morrow,  an  early  mass  was  said  for  the  parting 
guest.* 

Five  years  afterwards,  in  1837,  came  the  final  sup- 
pression of  the  monasteries.  The  poor  monks  were 
again  turned  out,  some  to  die  of  starvation  near  their 
old  haunts,  others  to  die  for  Don  Carlos  and  the 
church  on  the  hills  of  Biscay.  The  royal  monastery 
of  Yuste  soon  fell  into  utter  and  irremediable  ruin. 

When  I  visited  it  in  1849,  it  was  inhabited  only  by 
the  peasant  bailiff  of  the  lay  proprietor,  who  eked  out 
his  wages  by  showing  the  historical  site  to  the  pass- 
ing stranger.  The  principal  cloister  was  choked  with 
the  rubbish  of  the  fallen  upper  story,  the  richly  carved 
capitals  which  had  supported  it  peeping  here  and 
there  from  the  soil  and  the  luxuriant  mantle  of  wild 
shrubs  and  flowers.  Two  sides  of  the  smaller  and 
older  cloister  were  still  standing,  with  blackened  walls 
and  rotting  floors  and  ceiling.  The  strong  granite- 
built  church,  proof  against  the  fire  of  the  Gaul,  and 
the  wintry  storms  of  the  sierra,  was  a  hollow  shell, 
the  classical  decorations  of  the  altar,  and  quaint 
wood-work  of  the  choir,  having  been  partly  used  for 
fuel,  partly  carried  off"  to  the  parish  church  of  Quacos. 
Beautiful  blue  and  yellow  tiles,  which  had  lined  the 
chancel,  were  fast  dropping  from  the  walls ;  and  above, 
the  window  through  which  the  dying  glance  of 
Charles  had  sought  the  altar,  remained  like  the  eye- 
socket  in  a  skull,  turned  towards  the  damp,  blank 
space  that  was  once  bright  with  holy  tapers  and  the 
coloring  of  Titian.     In  a  vault  beneath,  approached 


*  Handbook,  1845,  pp.  551  -  553.    The  account  of  Yuste  is  one  of  the 
best  travelling  sketches  in  that  charming  book. 
27 


314  CLOISTER    LIFE    OF    CHARLES    THE    FIFTH. 

by  a  door  of  which  the  key  could  not  be  found,  I  was 
told  that  the  coffin  of  chestnut-wood,  in  which  the 
emperor's  body  had  lain  for  sixteen  years,  was  still 
kept  as  a  relic.  Of  his  palace,  the  lower  chambers 
were  used  as  a  magazine  for  fuel ;  and  in  the  rooms 
above,  where  he  lived  and  died,  maize  and  olives  were 
garnered,  and  the  silk-worm  wound  its  cocoon  in  dust 
and  darkness.  His  garden  below,  with  its  tank  and 
broken  fountain,  was  overgrown  with  tangled  thickets 
of  fig,  mulberry,  and  almond,  interspersed  with  a  few 
patches  of  pot-herbs,  and  here  and  there  an  orange- 
tree,  or  a  cypress,  to  mark  where  once  the  terrace 
smiled  with  its  blooming  parterres.  Without  the  gate, 
the  great  walnut-tree,  sole  relic  of  the  past  with  which 
time  had  not  dealt  rudely,  spread  forth  its  broad  and 
vigorous  boughs  to  shroud  and  dignify  the  desolation. 
Yet  in  the  lovely  face  of  nature,  changeless  in  its 
summer  charms,  in  the  hill  and  forest  and  wide  Vera, 
in  the  generous  soil  and  genial  sky,  there  was  enough 
to  show  how  well  the  imperial  eagle  had  chosen  the 
nest  wherein  to  fold  his  wearied  wings. 


APPENDIX. 


A  SELECTION  FROM  THE  EXTRACTS  MADE  BY  DON  TOMAS  GON- 
ZALEZ FROM  THE  INVENTORY  OF  THE  JEWELS,  WARDROBE, 
AND  FURNITURE  OF  THE  EMPEROR  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH, 
AT  YUSTE,  DRAWN  UP  AFTER  HIS  DEATH,  BY  FRAY  JUAN 
DE    REGLA,    MARTIN    DE    GAZTELU,   AND    LUIS    QUIXADA. 

A  bag,  of  mulberry  silk,  containing  three  portraits  of  the 
empress,  painted  on  vellum,  and  two  pictures  of  the  "  Last 
Judgment." 

Bags,  containing  portraits  of  the  duchess  of  Parma,  on  a 
small  panel,  and  of  the  emperor  when  a  boy  ;  and  a  por- 
trait of  the  king  of  France,  with  his  genealogy. 

A  box  of  black  leather,  lined  with  crimson  velvet,  containing 
four  bezuar  stones,*  variously  set  in  gold,  one  of  which 
the  emperor  ordered  to  be  given  to  William  Van  Male, 
his  gentleman  of  the  chamber,  being  sick,  as  it  was  sus- 
pected, of  the  plague. 

Various  quadrants,  astrolabes,  and  other  mathematical  in- 
struments. 

*  The  bezuar,  bezoar,  or  beza,  was  a  stone  found  in  the  kidneys  of 
the  cervicabra,  a  wild  animal  of  Arabia,  partaking  of  the  nature  of  the 
deer  and  the  goat,  and  somewhat  larger  than  the  latter.  The  stone  was 
supposed  to  be  formed  of  the  poison  of  serpents  which  had  bitten  her 
producer,  combined  with  the  counteracting  matter  with  which  nature  had 
furnished  it.  It  was  a  charm  against  plague  and  poison.  For  marvel- 
lous properties,  see  Gaspar  de  Morales :  Libra  de  las  Vittudes  y  Proprie- 
dades  maravUlosas  de  Piedras  preciosas,  sm.  8vo,  Madrid,  1605,  fol.  202- 
211. 


316  APPENDIX. 

A  sand-glass,  set  in  ebony,  with  its  box. 

Twenty-seven  pairs  of  spectacles: 

Thirty-nine  pairs  of  gold  and  enamelled  clasps  (clcwos)  to  be 

worn  in  the  cap. 
A  cameo  medal  (medallade  camafeo),  with  its  gold  mounting. 
A  number  of  gold  toothpicks. 

BOOKS, 

Amongst  which,  amounting  in  all  to  about  thirty-one  volumes,  and  usually 
described  as  bound  in  crimson  velvet,  mth  silver  clasps  and  mountings,  the 
following  names  occur:  — 

El  Caballero  determinado,*  in  French,  with  illuminated 
paintings. 

The  same,  in  manuscript,  in  Castillian  (^romance),  by  Don 
Hernando  de  Acuna  ;  likewise  with  illuminations. 

Boethius,  De  Consolatione  ;  three  copies ;  in  French,  Italian, 
and  Castillian. 

The  War  of  Germany,  by  the  Comendador-Mayor  of  Alcan- 
tara (Don  Luis  de  Avi!a).f 

A  large  book  of  vellum  ;  containing  many  drawings  and 
illuminations. 

Several  missals  and  books  of  hours,  with  illuminations. 

The  Christian  Doctrine,  by  Dr.  Constantino.  | 

The  Meditations  of  Fray  Luis  de  Granada. 

The  Christian  Doctrine,  by  Fray  Pedro  de  Soto. 

Csesar's  Commentaries,  in  Tuscan. 

Commentary  on  the  Psalm  In  te  Domine  speravi,  in  manu- 
script, by  Fray  Tomas  de  Puertocarrero. 

Astronomicon  Caesaris  de  Pedro  Apiano. 

Tolomeo. 

Two  portfolios,  with  some  manuscript  sheets  of  the  histories 
written  by  Florian  de  Ocampo  and  others. 

•  Chap.  m.  p.  59.  t  Chap.  IIL  p.  75.  X  Chap.  VIU.  p.  206. 


APPENDIX.  817 

Two  books  of  Meditation. 

Titelman's  Exposition  of  the  Psalms.*     2  vols. 

A  book  of  Memorias,  with  its  gold  pen.  Probably  a  note- 
book, but  possibly  the  emperor's  Memoirs. t 

Maps  of  Italy,  Flanders,  Germany,  and  the  Indies. 

A  large  portfolio  of  black  velvet,  containing  papers,  and 
sealed  up  for  the  princess-regent. 

The  fowling-piece  {arcabuz)  used  by  his  majesty,  and  various 
crossbows  (ballestas),  quivers  (carcajos),  and  other  trap- 
pings and  furniture  of  the  chase  {arreos  y  muebles  de 
caza). 

PLATE. 

Apprnxi  mate 
weight 

Plate  of  the  Chapel.  in  marks. 

A  variety  of  chalices,*  candlesticks,  crucifixes,  mon- 
strances, &c.        .......       100 

Plate  of  the  Chamber. 
Cups,  basins,  jugs,  bottles,  pitchers,  candlesticks ;  a 
warming-pan  with  its  handle  {calentador  con  man' 
go)  ;  a  "  pizpote  "  ;  a  basin  in  the  shape  of  a  tor- 
toise, used  by  his  majesty  in  washing  his  teeth 
{fuente  a  manera  de  galapago  en  que  S.  M.  lavaba 
los  dientes) ;  a  salt-box  of  Moorish  workmanship 
{caja para  sal  labrada  a  la  jnorisca),  &/C.    .         .       150 

Plate  of  the  Pantry. 
A  gold  and  enamelled  salt-cellar,  with  its  cover  ;  six 
square  gilt  trenchers,  with  the  arms  of  his  majesty ; 
eight  saucers  ;  chafing-dishes  for  keeping  the  dishes 
warm  on  the  table  ;  cups,  spoons,  knives,  and  forks,         70 

*  Commenlarii  paraphrastici  in  Psalmos,  was  printed  at  Antwerp,  in 
1552,  by  Steels,  at  the  particular  request  of  the  emperor,  conveyed  by 
Van  Male.    See  Van  Male's  Letters,  by  Reiffenberg;  Ep.  XXXII.  p.  87. 

t  Chap.  III.  p.  58,  and  Chap.  X.  p.  289. 

27  » 


318  appendix. 

Plate  of  the  Cellar. 

A  piece  of  gold,  to  be  put  hot  into  water  or  wine, 
for  the  use  of  his  majesty  (weighing  upwards  of  5| 
ounces).* 

Jars,  mugs,  and  bottles,  of  various  shapes  {jarros^ 
tarros,  frascos,  cuhiletes). 

Silver  mouth-pieces  {hrocdles  con  tornillos),  to  screw 
on  to  leathern  hunting-bottles  ;  tubes  (canutos)^ 
with  which  his  majesty  drank  when  he  had  the 
gout ;  spoons,  &c.         ......       400 

Plate  of  the  Larder. 
Two  large  ^ 

Thirty-six  middle-sized  >  dishes. 
Thirty-six  smaller  ) 

Two    dishes     for    serving    sucking-pigs    {lechones)^ 

saucers,  &c.        ......  650 

Plate  of  the  Dispensary. 
Cups,  mugs,  pans,  pots,  boxes,  phials  ;  box  for  carry- 
ing preserved  lemon-peel  or  candied  pumpkin  {dia- 
citron  o  calabazate),  &c.       .....         65 

Plate  of  the  Wax-room. 
Six  wrought  candlesticks,         .....         26 


Weight,  in  marks,  about  1561 
or  12,488  ounces  t 


*  Liquor,  in  which  hot  metal  was  quenched,  was  held  to  possess  valu- 
able astringent  properties.  See  Bacon's  remarks  on  the  subject,  in  his 
Historia  Vitce  et  Mortis,  V.  7  ;  Works,  10  vols.,  8vo,  Loudon,  1803,  Vol. 
VIII.  p.  422.  His  New  Advices  in  Order  to  Health,  Vol.  II.  p.  224,  con- 
tains the  following  memorandum  :  "  To  use  once  during  supper  wine 
in  which  gold  is  quenched." 

t  The  mark  of  Cologne,  or,  as  it  was  called  in  Spain,  of  Burgos,  con- 
tained eight  ounces.  J.  Garcia  Cavallero :  Breve  Cotejo  y  Valance,  pp. 
33,  36,  108. 


APPENDIX.  319 

Plate  and  Jewels  in  the  cake  of  the  Keeper  o^ 
THE  Jewels. 

A  reliquary  full  of  reliques. 

A  piece  of  the  true  cross. 

Another  piece,  set  in  a  cross  of  gold. 

Several  vessels  for  sprinkling  perfumes  (ahnarras)  of  silver. 

Two  bracelets,  and  two  rings  of  gold,  and  one  of  bone,  all 

good  for  hemorrhoids  {almorranas). 
A  blue  stone,  with  two  clasps  [corchetes)  of  gold,  good  for 

gout. 
Rosaries,  chains,  and  several  pairs  of  spectacles. 
The  great  Order  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  with  its  collar,  and 

several  others  of  a  smaller  size. 
A  small  picture  on  panel  of  Our  Lady,  mounted  with  silver, 

which  belonged  to  the  empress. 
A  box  containing  a  crucifix  of  wood,  the   same  which  his 

majesty  and  the  empress  held  in  their  hands  when  they 

died,  and  two  scourges  {disciplinas). 
A  signet-ring  of  Chalcedony,   engraved  with  the  imperial 

arms. 
Eighteen  files  to  file  his  majesty's  teeth. 

Crucifixes,  Paintings,  and  other  Articles. 

A  picture  of  the  Trinity,  on  canvas,  by  Titian. 

A  large  picture  on  wood,  with  Jesus  Christ  bearing  his  cross, 
Our  Lady,  St.  John,  and  St.  Veronica,  by  master  Michael  * 
(in  the  monastery). 

A  picture  on  wood,  a  crucifix,  which  stands  upon  the  prin- 
cipal altar,  with  gilt  base  and  top. 

A  picture  of  the  scourging  of  Christ,  by  Titian. 

A  picture  of  Our  Lady,  on  wood,  by  master  Michael. 

A  picture  of  Christ  bearing  his  cross,  by  master  Michael,  and 
another  of  Our  Lady,  on  stone,  joined  with  it,  by  Titian. 

•  Chap.  IV.  p.  101. 


320  APPENDIX. 

^  picture  of  Our  Lady,  on  wood,  by  Titian. 
A  picture  of  Our  Lady  with  Our  Lord  in  her  arms,  on  can- 
vas, by  Titian. 
Portraits   of  the  emperor  and   the  empress,  on  canveis,  by 

Titian. 
A  portrait  of  the  emperor  in  armor,  by  Titian. 

A  full-length  portrait  of  the  empress,  by  Titian. 

A  portrait  of  the  queen  of  England,  on  wood,  by  Thomas 
(doubtless  a  mistake  for  Antonio)  More. 

A  picture  with  four  figures,  portraits  of  children  of  the  queen 
of  Bohemia. 

Tapestry  of  gold,  silver,  and  silk,  representing  the  Adoration 
of  the  kings. 

An  altar-piece  with  doors,  containing  pictures  of  the  Virgin 
and  babe,  and  of  the  Annunciation  of  the  Virgin,  and 
adorned  with  nine  gold  medallions  of  various  sizes,  por- 
traits of  the  emperor,  the  empress  (2),  king  Philip  (2),  the 
queen  of  England,  the  queen  of  Bohemia  (2),  and  the 
princess  of  Portugal. 

Several  other  pictures  of  sacred  subjects,  without  names  of 
masters. 

Three  large  books  of  paper,  with  drawings  of  trees,  flowers, 
men,  and  other  objects,  from  the  Indies. 

The  great  clock  made  by  Master  Juanelo,  with  its  case,  and 
the  table  of  walnut-wood  with  cloth  cover,  upon  which  it 
stands  in  his  majesty's  chamber. 

Another  clock,  of  crystal,  with  its  base,  by  the  said  Juanelo. 

Another  clock,  called  the  Portal. 

Another,  called  the  Mirror. 

Others,  round  and  small,  for  the  pocket. 

Six  pieces  of  tapestry,  —  landscapes. 

Seven  pieces,  with  animals  and  landscapes. 

Twelve  pieces,  with  foliage  (verdura). 

Fine  coverings  for  seats  {bancales),  with  foliage. 

Twelve  hangings  of  fine  black  cloth  for  the  apartments  of  the 
emperor  (in  the  moneistery). 


APPENDIX.  321 

Four  door-curtains  (ante-puertas)  of  black  cloth. 

Seven  carpets  {alfomhras),  four  Turkish,  and  three  of  Al- 

carez. 
Canopies  {dosels)  of  fine  black  velvet. 
A  quantity  of  linen. 

In  his  Majesty's  Chamber. 

Two  beds,  of  different  sizes. 

Six  blankets  of  white  cloth. 

Fourteen  feather  bolsters  {colchones  de  pluma). 

Thirty-seven  pillows  (ahnohadas),  with  much  holland  bed- 
linen  {ropa  de  holanda)  of  all  kinds. 

Six  chairs,  covered  with  black  velvet. 

His  majesty's  arm-chair,  with  six  cushions  and  a  footstool. 

Chair  in  which  his  majesty  was  carried,  with  its  staves  (andas 
de  brazo). 

Twelve  chairs  of  walnut- wood,  garnished  with  nails  {tacho' 
nadas). 

In  the  Wardrobe. 

Sixteen  long  robes,  lined  with  eider-down,  ermine,  Tunis  kid- 
skin,  or  velvet. 

Six  bornooses  (albornoces),  one  of  them  presented  to  his 
majesty  at  Tunis. 

In  the  Stable. 

Four  mules  of  burden,  one  of  them  chestnut  and  named 

"  Cardenala." 
A  gray  horse. 
Two  other  mules. 

In  the  Harness-room. 

A  litter  lined  with  black  velvet,  and  mounted  outside  with 
steel.  Delivered  at  Valladolid  on  the  26th  of  October, 
1558. 


322  APPENDIX. 

Another,  of  smaller  size,  with  a  seat  inside,  lined  with  black 
serge,  and  covered  outside  with  leather. 

The  whole  of  the  above  property,  not  left  in  the  monas- 
tery, was  given  over  to  the  charge  of  Juan  Esteque,  keeper 
of  his  majesty's  jewels,  on  the  1st  of  November,  1558. 


THE    END. 


CAMBRisas: 

METCALF   AM>    COMFAST,    PRDiTEBS    TO    THE    UKIVEBSITT. 


Date 


A     000  660  181     9 


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